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HITHER AND YON 



BY LAND AND SEA 



By Margaret J. M. Sweat 




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PRIVATELY PRINTED 
1901 



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•fHE y 5BRARY OF 
Two Cqh£3 ftecetv^o 

NOV. 20 1901 

COPVRIOHT ENTKv 

CLASS <^ XXa NO, 

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COPY a 



COPYRIGHT, I90I, BY MARGARET J. M. SWEAT. 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



DEDICATED 
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE 

WASHINGTON CLUB 

FOR WHOM THESE PAGES WERE 
ORIGINALLY WRITTEN 



CONTENTS 

Mediterranean Pictures 1 

Malta 18 

The Midnight Sun 23 

A Fortnight in St. Petersburg » . . . 37 

The Escorial 71 

The Crimea . 81 

An Earthly Paradise — Ceylon .... 96 

Moscow — The Holy City 109 

Japan . . . . 128 

Central Spain 171 

The Monastery of Montserrat .... 181 

The Pyrenees 188 

A Summer Day in Spain 199 

A Memorial Leaf . . . . . . 204 

" On THE Heights " 208 

A Transit across India . . . . . 215 

From Jaffa to Jerusalem . . . * . 248 

Egypt : Its Art, its History, its Fascination . 268 



HITHER AND YON 



MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 

I SHALL have to give only a rough and sketchy- 
account of this voyage for many reasons. In the 
first place, much of it had to be hastily written 
without books, and in the next a so-called round 
trip is something like a tramp, the pauses being 
many but brief, and therefore superficial in the 
impressions they produce. But superficial im- 
pressions are often very vivid, and are etched 
very sharply into the memory, so I may hope to 
give you a few interesting pictures from the 
many that I collected. 

I have told you in previous travel-papers of 
the solemn dignity of Egypt, of the barbaric 
splendors of India, of the wonderful picturesque- 
ness of Japan, of the tropical luxuriance of 
Mexico and the decaying glories of Spain.^ 

I now bring you what I was able to gather 
from a rapid survey of the countries bordering 

1 The papers referred to were read at the Washington Club, 
Washington, D. C. 



2 MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 

on the Mediterranean, which involved dashes 
into Europe, Asia, and Africa, and many scenes 
as full of historic interest as of picturesque 
beauty. 

A round trip differs from an ordinary cross- 
ing of the Atlantic in that its beginning is like 
its ending and you hold by your ship all the 
while. This begets a sense of residence, as it 
were, a homeishness in your cabin as you develop 
its conveniences and learn to be indulgent of its 
limitations. You lay aside your sense of respon- 
sibility, because your life is rounded out for you 
by the powers that have taken you in charge. 
The ship is your temporary home, and the pas- 
sengers gradually become actual and separate in- 
dividuals, instead of remaining the mere lantern- 
slides of the brief passage to Europe. 
^ You become attached to the good ship which 
bears you over so many waves, which welcomes 
your return after each excursion, and which gives 
you " The Star Spangled Banner " in defiant 
notes if your patriotism weakens under the spell 
of foreign dominations. 

Never was the resemblance to a floating hotel 
more'visible than on the Auguste Victoria upon 
this voyage, with three hundred and seventy-five 
passengers gathered from everywhere and des- 
tined to equally thorough dispersion. 

The promenade deck was as crowded as Broad- 
way when the five days of rough weather 



MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 3 

and the misery of seasickness were over. To 
one of her passengers who does not suffer this 
especial pang, these five days were a season of 
welcome rest and of silent communion with the 
mighty deep, most welcome and most prized. 

The rough and turbulent sea has infinite 
charm under such circumstances, and its appar- 
ent monotony is full of variations for a close 
observer. 

Sea pictures have been too often described for 
me to trespass on your patience with my remem- 
brances, but there was one especial mid-ocean 
sunset I would gladly paint. 

The western sky was softly flushed with deli- 
cate tints only, but beneath and near the horizon 
and meeting the darkening shadows of the ocean- 
line there sprang the grand archway of a perfect 
bridge spanning a broad river of molten gold, 
which seemed to bring the treasures of some 
heavenly Pactolus to enrich and adorn the som- 
bre waves of the solemn Atlantic. 

Our two days at Madeira (February 2 and 3) 
gave us opportunity for the usual experiences of 
the rapid traveler. We drove in the quaint bul- 
lock carts and rather admired the odd little trot 
of animals that with us would not be expected to 
deviate from the sedate walk of those accus- 
tomed to draw heavy burdens. 

We ascended to Mount Church by the so- 
called Funicular Railway, and could judge of the 



4 MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 

amazing fertility of the island by the lush vege- 
tation of bananas and sugar-canes, of fig-trees 
and orange-trees, of pomegranates and the queer 
fruits of the tropics, which as a general thing are 
very mawkish to a northern palate. Custard ap- 
ples or alligator pears do not compare with New 
Jersey peaches or California cherries. 

But the island, even on a brief survey, presents 
an enchanting picture and fills the eye with its 
various floral beauties, satisfies the artistic sense 
by the heaven-kissing hills, the sunny valleys, 
the cosmopolitan population, and the mixture of 
the very old with the very new. 

As the first day of our visit was the Feast of 
the Purification, we found at the church on the 
hill many devout worshipers, most of whom had 
climbed on foot up the weary way of which we 
heretics complained when we were forced to walk 
for a very small proportion of the distance. 

When the time came to descend the mountain, 
we found at our disposal a large number of 
wicker chairs on wooden runners, in which the 
descent of the mountain is made. They are 
guided by men who stand on the runners when 
the speed is too great for them to keep up on 
foot. Passengers give the order "slow" or 
"fast." Having chosen the latter, we started 
over the stony way worn smooth and slippery by 
long, long usage, and with constantly increasing 
speed flew along as if on a toboggan. Occasion- 



MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 5 

ally we came to a sudden curve in the narrow 
pathway, and but for the skill of our guides would 
have bounced out of our primitive equipage. 

We reached the bottom far in advance of the 
crowd, though we had started well in the rear, and 
it is certain that my order to go fast was very 
literally obeyed. 

Hammocks are also much used in Madeira, 
and when adorned with pretty hangings and 
borne by well-trained bearers they have quite an 
aristocratic effect. 

But the bullock sledges are really unique, and 
with the aid of an occasional grease-bag thrown 
in front of the runners a very steep ascent can 
be climbed by the docile animals. 

Madeira has had its charms often sung in 
glowing words. It is called one of the Isles 
of the Blest, and has other flattering titles. 
" Neither the frost of winter nips its buds, nor 
the heat of summer fades its hues; perennial 
verdure greets the eye." 

The English poet Myers says of it, — 

** Atlantic island, phantom fair 
Throned on the solitary sea." 

At our hotel (the Carmo) we found a garden 
which seemed to have escaped all contamination 
from modern innovation. All the old-time 
flowers were there in a sweet tangle of growth, 
strange trees with gnarled trunks and mighty 
branches, lofty palms and the delicate foliage of 



6 MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 

tamarisk and pepper-trees, while century-old 
vines clasped all within their reach in strong but 
perilous embrace. 

Above all, the steps and the borders of the 
walls were adorned with fine old tiles, many of 
them of ancient Spanish excellence, and violently 
tempting the beholder to appropriate some of 
them. 

It was indeed a contrast to go from this spot, 
so suggestive of dreamy acceptance of things as 
they have always been, to the French shops out- 
side, where every modern gewgaw finds a place 
and the song of birds is exchanged for the clamor 
of commerce and the clink of coin. 

On Sunday we reached Gibraltar, once so 
formidable in invulnerable strength, and still 
scowling like an old man's face when he gets 
angry but is too feeble to fight. 

Something of the prestige of its old impor- 
tance remains, for the rock is still lionlike in 
attitude, and fronts all comers to the Mediterra- 
nean with lordly dignity. 

From Gibraltar we passed to beautiful Algiers 
on a sea of glassy smoothness. The storms 
which were then harrowing the Atlantic roused 
no adverse billows for us. The approach to the 
city, which crowns the crags and spreads at the 
foot of precipices, is grandly picturesque, and the 
sunshine lies upon its pale yellow walls like a 
veil of golden gauze. 



MEDITEERANEAN PICTURES 7 

We were soon on shore, and our large contin- 
gent of shipmates absorbed the crowd of carriages 
which seemed to spring up from the ground, as 
Cook's much maligned but powerful agents 
uttered the words which put them at our dispo- 
sal. 

Algiers begins to merit its name of La Nou- 
velle France, and as one approaches it from the 
sea, bears much resemblance to other Mediterra- 
nean ports which have climbed over the hills and 
terraced the steep mountain-sides. 

But it is a wonderfully attractive specimen of 
its class, and " offers scenes of absorbing interest 
to the tourist." 

The French Quarter is a transplanted bit of 
Paris. The Moorish portion retains in an unusual 
degree its original characteristics, and its narrow 
footways meander up hill and down dale in Ori- 
ental love of shadows and hatred of ventilation. 

The patient Arab sits in the little cupboard of 
the shop where his great-grandfather bargained 
with equally patient customers for a handful of 
dates or a pair of yellow slippers. 

The modern city has many fine hotels and the 
airs of a fashionable watering-place, but the 
charm of sea and sky remains undisturbed by 
the inventions of man. 

A delightful drive of more than two hours gave 
near and distant views, as we went first through 
the lower town, where commerce holds its sway, 



8 MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 

and then up over the hills and among the fertile 
fields and blossoming gardens. 

The homes of the wealthy present a succession 
of Edens ; the clouds by turns rise lightly above 
the mountains or soften their outlines with a 
gauzy mist. Every tint may be found in the 
sweet landscape as in a delicate water-color ; the 
rainbow primitive colors cease to be too vivid 
and palpitating, and tone themselves to perfect 
harmony with each other, wooing the eye and tell- 
ing their story to the imagination, till the present 
moment passes gently into the historic past and 
we people the scene with the strange figures of 
by-gone ages, rather than with the prosaic people 
of to-day. 

The trolley system of locomotion seems an 
intrusive anomaly in such a scene of sylvan 
beauty and romantic associations, but it is never- 
theless a material advantage for those who need 
every moment of allotted time, if they are to see 
beautiful localities distant from each other. 

It gives miles for minutes ; it rests the limbs, 
weary with walking, and offers an ever-changing 
panorama not to be seen otherwise. So we put 
aside for a more convenient season our sentimen- 
tal regrets over the more primitive and character- 
istic features of the past and embrace the oppor- 
tunity for seeing as much as possible of this 
earthly paradise, by taking a car to the suburb 
of Sta. Eugenia. And it is precisely this sort 



MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 9 

of excursion which affords opportunity for esti- 
mating the growth, the prosperity, and the solid- 
ity of a foreign colony like Algeria. 

Algiers is a place where very marked contrasts 
touch each other, and we turn from the gay and 
spacious boulevard bordered on one side by beau- 
tiful villas set in wonderful gardens and on the 
other by a stone balustrade and the blue waves 
of the Mediterranean, and in five minutes we are 
in the midst of the Moorish Quarter. 

Here narrow streets, not more than six or eight 
feet, often only four feet, wide, with paving-stones 
worn smooth by many feet, sloping down to a 
central gutter and climbing heights and descend- 
ing depths in a most inconsequent fashion, bring 
you face to face with the tiny shops and the 
numerous manufactures carried on in a perpetual 
twilight which must be a severe strain to the weak- 
eyed Arabs. 

The cathedral and the old mosque opposite 
are both fine. The mosque has been transformed 
into the Archbishop's palace, but retains many 
of its architectural beauties, its wonderful inlaid 
work, and its exquisite ceilings. 

Nature has made Algiers very lovely, and man, 
modern man, is supplying by art and industry all 
those material luxuries which even nature lovers 
desire and appreciate. 

The climate is delightful, the November tem- 
perature about 64°, that of May about 75°; the 
autumn the finest part of the year. 



10 MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 

Only forty hours from Paris by the clock, it 
is centuries behind in habits, appearances, and 
customs, if the old town alone is allowed to tes- 
tify. 

Once rightly called the City of Pirates, it re- 
tains many of the features of old barbarism ; but 
side by side with the narrow lanes and mysteri- 
ous abodes and labyrinths where crime may lurk 
unpunished, there has grown up a gay and 
sunny city of tennis-courts and golf grounds, 
of theatre and opera and modernity of all sorts. 
The hospitality to all vegetation which the fertile 
soil offers is seen to great advantage in the Jardin 
d'Essai, which presents the growths of every 
clime and makes a lovely picture at every turn of 
its many paths. There is a bewilderingly beau- 
tiful avenue of bamboos, where the very ultimate 
possibility of graceful foliage, and feathery light- 
ness, and exquisite greenness, and tender pliancy 
are all and each claiming your admiration. Or 
you wander into the avenue of palms, to learn 
how full of personal dignity a tree can be, and 
how among those many tall and stately monarchs 
each one bears its own stamp of individuality as 
a race of kings has worn its crowns, all combin- 
ing, as history combines the members of some 
famous dynasty, but each one having his own 
prestige, as a Charlemagne or a William the 
Conqueror. * 

It is easy to mix up centuries in such a local- 



MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 11 

ity as this portion of Africa, which not long ago 
was the terror of Christendom and now hangs 
like a brilliant fringe on the still dark regions of 
that mighty continent. It hardly seems incon- 
gruous, even, that after meeting a European lady 
walking unattended and in the full emancipation 
of the latest Parisian toilette, one should on turn- 
ing the next corner come upon an " Arab leaving 
his house and locking his door with a key a 
quarter of a yard long, which he puts carefully 
in his pocket, in order no one should visit his 
wives in his absence." 

While lying in this magnificent harbor and 
looking often at the fine quays and arches and 
roadways by which the French are developing 
the boundless commercial advantages of this 
colony, our ship, the well-beloved Auguste Vic- 
toria, received a visit from a princess of Holstein, 
said to be aunt of the Kaiser, and therefore wel- 
comed w^ith all ceremony and respect. A colla- 
tion was prepared for her, and leaning upon the 
arm of Captain Kaempff she made the tour of 
the ship. She was a fine-looking elderly lady 
with unusual dignity of bearing, and though 
seventy years of age was dressed in white a la 
Parisienne. 

But a full account of the attractions of Algiers 
would fill a volume, and meantime the steamer 
whistle is sounding to collect its scattered flock. 

Across the smiling sea we sail for Genoa, 



12 MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 

where we are on familiar ground, and of which 
you need no description. After two days for 
coaling, we return upon our previous steps and 
anchor in the pretty harbor of Villefranche, 
where we find seven French men-of-war ready 
to punish us if we do not behave well. 

Away go the passengers, — some to the Carni- 
val at Nice, and ourselves with a fair contingent 
by rail to Monte Carlo. Here is the same ex- 
quisite beauty of nature and the same shameless- 
ness of vice that has so long been triumphant 
on this sunny shore. It has all been worn 
threadbare by the poet, the novelist, and the 
moralist, — let it pass ! 

But who would venture to describe the beauty 
of Mount Etna as the sun arose and tinted with 
auroral flush her royal mantle of unsullied snow ! 
And how different from the cheerful picturesque- 
ness of the Corniche! The vast mass of the 
mountain rests with crushing weight on the sur- 
rounding country ; a solemn gravity, a hushed 
stillness, a reverent emotion seem the fitting 
accompaniment. 

We paid our tribute of willing homage as the 
sun-god kissed the mountain's snowy breast, but 
as we sailed on we saw that, as usual, the mo- 
ment of rapture was brief and the glowing tints 
were fading into the prosaic light of common 
day. 

That once greatest of Hellenic cities, Syra- 



MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 13 

cuse, has a superb harbor, like many of these at- 
tractive Mediterranean ports. Vessels great and 
small, mighty steamers, richly freighted mer- 
chantmen, stately ships, and tiny water-craft 
alike find room and welcome. 

Here also come to most travelers a thousand 
reminiscences of the episodes in history that were 
absorbed in childhood from now discarded school- 
books, reminiscences strongly accentuated by the 
terrible array of unaccustomed syllables which 
affronted our childish eyes and puzzled our child- 
ish brains. Here and now we meet in the flesh 
with Antiochus and Dionysius and their long- 
named friends, and they seem much more at 
home than we are. 

We exorcise a few of these historic phantoms 
by giving them leave to declare themselves with 
historic clearness and with something of the en- 
vironment in which they lived. So we look up 
authorities and find that the city was founded 
734 B. c. ; that a population of 500,000 in its 
palmy days has dwindled to 23,000 ; that the 
eloquent Demosthenes fought here ; that the 
great historian Thucydides described its battles ; 
that the Carthaginians conquered it, and so on, 
through ages of blood and misery. St. Paul 
spent three days here on his way to Eome, and 
his landing-place may be seen from the hills.' 

A single column and two or three pedestals 
are all that remain of the once splendid Forum, 



14 MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 

the meeting-place for political and literary dis- 
cussions. Two immense aqueducts supplied the 
city with water, and all the appurtenances of 
luxury were in full abundance. It is to the 
ruins of these great metropolitan constructions 
that the traveler turns to-day, and from which 
he strives to rebuild the splendid past. 

The grand amphitheatre of Roman days still 
holds its moss-grown stonework in the form it 
wore in the days of Augustus ; some of the smaller 
stones still bear the names of the proprietors of 
the seats to whom they belonged. 

The old drains which conveyed away the blood 
of victims may still be traced, and the heavens 
above still refuse to pass judgment on the scenes 
they witnessed, — when man was a bloodthirsty 
animal and the sterner passions held undisputed 
sway. But if the Roman amphitheatre is still 
eloquent of the combats of the arena, the ruins 
of the still more beautifully situated Greek 
amphitheatre recall the love of natural beauty 
inherent in the temperament of the ancient 
Greek. 

Here are not only the remains of the admirably 
planned theatre, of which forty-six rows of seats 
still attest the enormous outpourings from the 
city which came to the games, but there is proof 
in the commanding nature of the situation that 
the gaze of the more refined portion of the audi- 
ences often wandered from the monotony of the 



MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 15 

performance to the transcendent beauty of tlie 
distant view and the marvelous harmony of sea 
and sky which spread before the beholder in un- 
stinted glory. 

From the ruined masonry and interesting as- 
sociations of these constructions, which tell of an 
amusement-loving people, we went to the famous 
Latomie, or stone quarries, from which the city 
has been built, and which in the vastness of their 
excavations, the picturesqueness which the na- 
ture of the veins of stone has imprinted upon 
the quarried portion of the hills, present a sort 
of Cyclopean architecture with mighty archways, 
bold cornices, and projecting columns. 

Everywhere are to be seen the climbing vines, 
the tender ferns, the smiling flowers with which 
nature loves to clothe her sunny places or to 
conceal her scars. The vast quarries cover an 
immense extent of ground and possess romantic 
and tragic traditions of their own. They have 
been utilized both as burial-places and as prisons, 
and large numbers of captives, securely confined 
within the gates, were forced to labor for their 
hard masters. 

A constant moisture drops from above in 
many places, and here the growth of delicate fo- 
liage is really wonderful, and drapes the deep 
excavations with mantles which wave in the sum- 
mer breeze and soften the outline of the most 
rugged rocks. One of the quarries bears the 



16 MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 

name of Latomia del Paradise, while the so- 
called Ear of Dionysius, claimed to be a whis- 
pering gallery of the Tyrant, enters into the 
mountain for more than two hundred feet. It is 
shaped like the letter S, and has extraordinary 
acoustic properties. 

It is closed by an iron door of moderate size, 
but when this door is allowed to swing into its 
place the clang and the reverberation are really 
wonderfully deep, sonorous, and reechoing. 

An antique-looking beggar musician gathers 
a few coins by teasing the inner echo with the 
strains of his violin, and the weird sounds add to 
the uncanny gloom and suggestive possibilities 
of a place admirably adapted for the private 
crimes of a tyrant. 

But the principal effect of this old scene of 
hard labor and vanished generations is of now 
peaceful repose, of nature coming to the rescue 
of its ill-treated charms, of fitness for meditation 
by those who visit it over a never returning past 
of agitation, of bloodshed and pitiless cruelty. 

There are later ruins to attract attention, and 
the busy day seems all too short for what we 
wish to see. There are extensive catacombs of 
great interest, many remains of later construc- 
tion also. One of those, the ruined church of 
San Giovanni, has the stone tracery of a remark- 
ably beautiful rose window ; fragments of stone- 
work appear here and there to excite question- 



MEDITERRANEAN PICTURES 17 

ing interest ; and but for the filth, the unhealthi- 
ness, and the uneatable food of Syracuse, a pro- 
longed stay would be productive of enjoyment, 
and certainly of improvement. But malaria and 
evil smells drive off the most enthusiastic, and we 
prefer at any rate not to pass a night on shore. 



MALTA 

Malta really comprises three islands, and 
covers much more territory than my own pre- 
vious impression of it had permitted. Malta, 
Gozzo, and Comino, all apparently regarded as 
Malta, extend for twenty miles in length and 
about ten in breadth. The highest point is 690 
feet above the sea, and of the 177,000 inhabi- 
tants about 10,000 are English. Incessant in- 
dustry has made the originally unfertile and 
scanty soil to bear two crops a year. Oranges 
and lemons grow side by side with cotton and 
corn. 

But perhaps the most interesting of the an- 
cient titles to our regard is that it is believed to 
have been the mysterious residence of Calypso, 
and that here the sage Ulysses ceased to be sage 
and forgot poor, patient Penelope. However 
that may be, a long procession of warriors has 
tramped over the soil, and the bones of Cartha- 
ginians and Romans, of Arabs, of Goths and 
Normans, have helped to form the soil now un- 
der peaceful culture. 

St. Paul's shipwreck also tells of old-time 
dangers, the date of his accident being given as 



MALTA 19 

A. D. 61. Interesting as the ancient history of 
these Mediterranean localities is, the story of 
more modern days is still more stirring ; and 
the most important event in the history of Malta 
was the presentation of the island by Charles V. 
in 1530 to the Knights of St. John, who had 
been expelled from Rhodes, and their magnifi- 
cent Order was homeless. The deed of gift is 
now to be seen in the Museum among many 
other valuable relics of the past. 

These knights became the Knights of Malta, 
and as such served as an invulnerable bulwark 
of Christianity against the eager Moslem inva- 
ders. They sustained a memorable siege in 1565. 
The Commander La Valette founded the city 
which bears his name, and strengthened the for- 
tifications by every method then known to mili- 
tary art. Bonaparte captured it by a stratagem 
in 1798, but after a two years' siege it was taken 
by the English ; and, as usual, the English keep 
what they take. 

However memorable its history and however 
changeable its experiences, the charm of its sur- 
roundings and the majesty of its position never 
change. It rises from the sea in a series of em- 
battled walls, and frowns at hostile demonstra- 
tion, while at the same time it smiles in sunny 
light and seems to welcome newcomers with un- 
hesitating promptness. The city is very clean, 
even for our modern ideas ; its monuments are 



20 MALTA 

protected, and evidently valued. The cathedral 
is gorgeous with mediaeval splendors, and one 
steps with reverence over its marble pavement, 
beneath which have lain so many noble dead. 
The church of St. John is still more interesting, 
as connected with the Grand Masters of the 
Order ; L'Isle Adam, the first Grand Master, 
La Valette, brave and skillful commander, and 
other of her best defenders are buried in the 
crypt, with stately monuments relating their vir- 
tues. The church itself is very sumptuous, and 
has some valuable paintings. The names of the 
chapels serve as heads to many chapters of truth 
stranger than fiction, and every step we take 
may be illuminated by the record of glorious 
deeds. 

The drive from the port to Valetta was full 
of interest, and was long enough and various 
enough to make us feel that we had gone over 
much territory. There was little in the way of 
costume, — the wave of monotony is sweeping 
over the earth, — the only noticeable thing of 
the sort being a kind of deep cape-bonnet of old 
shape, from which depended a short cloak of the 
same material ; this seemed to be very generally 
worn by the women. 

The gardens of the Governor's palace were 
dreamily lovely, and a striking contrast occurs 
between the sternly fortified walls, the frowning 
parapets and muniments of war, and the reckless 
luxuriance of tropical flowers and fruit. 



MALTA 21 

It is a pity that in most of these foreign para- 
dises one can never get anything to eat, and yet 
that, beautiful as the sky and sea and hill and 
plain all are, they cannot assuage hunger or 
supply the needs of the thirsty wayfarer. The 
Westminster Hotel had a good sound, but it was 
of brass and not even a tinkling cymbal. So, 
hushing the pangs of an outraged nature, we 
turned to mental delights with heroic patience. 
It was the day of All Souls, and bodies were at a 
discount, — much preaching was going on. We 
went to the church of St. Paul, which stands 
over a grotto in which he is said to have dwelt 
for three months. His statue stands near the 
entrance to attest the fact. 

The Armory deserves a long visit, for every 
object in it has some especially intimate and per- 
sonal tradition. The helmets crowned the heads 
of famous warriors, and every blow that cleft 
their shining metal was inflicted by an antago- 
nist whose sword ran red with pagan blood, or 
whose lance had borne the prize from many a 
tournament. The cannon, once so formidable, 
now win admiration as works of art ; the her- 
aldic devices, once familiar as family names, 
now challenge the student of forgotten records ; 
the shields borne before the bravest breasts bear 
the marks of battle axe and bullet, of mace and 
sling. It fills the mind with almost living pic- 
tures to see so many of the actualities of war 



22 MALTA 

when war was tlie scene of personal conflict in- 
stead of a game of skill ; and one feels a thrill in 
thinking of those who wore this armor, who rode 
into the thickest of the fight, and gave blow for 
blow until their life-blood ebbed away. 

In the famous mortuary chapel of the Knights 
Templar, which in this irreverent age goes by 
the name of the Chapel of Bones, we found a re- 
markable instance of the way in which the true 
artist can subdue to his purpose the most unpro- 
mising materials. The Capucini at Rome is 
ghastly, catacombs are hideously suggestive, 
sepulchral monuments are gloomy; but the 
Templars' skulls and arms and legs and all their 
tiniest bones have in this chapel lent themselves 
to graceful outlines and simply form a highly 
effective architectural finish to arch and wain- 
scot, column and altar. 

The original owners of those many bones 
could ask no better resting place. 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN 

Whoever would see the North Cape and the 
Midnight Sun in perfection, must visit Norway 
in the month of July, and linger along the west 
coast on the way ; for then the shores and the 
seas and the skies are at their best, and their 
best is marvelously lovely. A good deal of 
geography is to be learned on the trip, and 
many questions get asked and answered con- 
cerning certain marked peculiarities in the 
earth's northern arrangements. One of these 
peculiarities is the great difference which ex- 
ists between the climate of the west and that 
of the east coasts in the whole northern hemi- 
sphere. It is stated that " in the same latitude 
in which lies the almost uninhabitable region of 
East Siberia, and in which Franklin perished in 
the Arctic regions of America, the waters of the 
western fiords (in Norway) never freeze ex- 
cept in their upper extremities." This means, 
of course, that there are many minor differences 
which are worthy attention. We found, for in- 
stance, fruit trees in high latitudes ; the fertile 
beauty of the fields and flowers is wonderful, and 
currants and strawberries are to be found even 
at the North Cape. 



24 THE MIDNIGHT SUN 

Another feature of the Norwegian coast is the 
almost fantastic indentation of the shore line 
and the number of islands scattered about in its 
vicinity, as if they were fragments broken from 
the mainland and thrown aside by a careless 
hand. The deep and narrow indentations form 
the fiords and afford the richest variety of 
scenery. All the world knows of the splendor 
of these fiords, but all the world does not know 
how the stately steamer Auguste Victoria 
adapted her huge Highness to their narrow di- 
mensions and tortuous windings. It was a most 
interesting occupation to watch the management 
of so immense a ship in places apparently inac- 
cessible to any but the smallest craft. What 
the Vikings would have said to the Auguste Vic- 
toria we can only guess, but it is certain they 
^ould have greatly admired her skill in avoiding 
dangers. 

One often wishes for new phrases in which to 
clothe the impressions of new scenes, which dif- 
fer so much from those heretofore familiar, — 
but language is limited, and the same old adjec- 
tives are again pressed into service. The hope 
is faint that, by some especial rearrangement, 
they may present some fresh picture of the pre- 
dominant characteristics of an interesting local- 
ity. For instance, — the scenery of this now 
present Norway is as little like that of Egypt as 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN 25 

the theology of Thor's hammer is like the wor- 
ship of Isis; one would like to emphasize this 
difference and show how interwoven in both 
cases is the faith with the external nature of 
each country, — to make clear what may be called 
the inevitability of its characteristics in cre- 
ating the harmony between its religion and its 
surroundings, while ever deepening and widen- 
ing the differences between the two countries 
themselves. Here, in this picturesque northern 
land, the wild myths and sounding sagas, the 
tales of shipwreck, of war, of muscular achieve- 
ment and godlike physical strength, are a natural 
sequence from the fatherland from which they 
sprang. As we pass by the shores where Harold 
the Fairhaired fought ; where " Jarl Egill wooed 
Torf Einar's bright daughter ; " where fire and 
sword were the inevitable accompaniments of 
national life, — the narrative of these troublous 
and exciting times seems fitly framed in the 
grand and sombre scenery in which petty strife 
and ignoble deeds should find no chronicler. 
Odin still keeps open hall for heroes, Thor has 
not yet dropped his thunder-hammer, and Na- 
ture, now as in those ancient days, though beau- 
tiful, is often as merciless as the crews of those 
old war-ships. 

The men who sailed recklessly from these 
fiords ; who climbed these hills, haunted for 
them with evil spirits ; who gathered courage 



26 THE MIDNIGHT SUN 

from constant commune with these stern aspects 
of nature, could not be otherwise than rough and 
stern themselves. But they had also their sea- 
sons of softer passions than war, and were as 
pathetic in suffering, as faithful in devotion, as 
they were pitiless in battle. The blood in the 
veins of the most supercilious modern cannot 
fail to thrill at the grand old legends when they 
are heard among the scenes where they took 
place. Each frowning mountain that we pass 
has had its monsters for the young hero to con- 
quer ; each sunny valley had its maiden fair 
and pure ; and every shore has witnessed the 
brave deeds or the braver deaths of mighty war- 
riors. The very sunshine of to-day, the inspirit- 
ing breath of the bracing winds, the booming of 
the northern waves, — all combine to shape the 
romance of this land. 

A good example of the conflicting climatic 
peculiarities of NorVay was furnished us when, 
after several days of keen, cold winds and a fur- 
demanding temperature, we made a sudden turn 
from the open sea and anchored in the pretty 
harbor of Molde, a tiny town smiling in summer 
sunshine. It is at the head of the beneficent 
Gulf Stream, and would do credit to the shores 
of the Mediterranean. The town nestles beneath 
a range of green hills which shelter it from the 
north winds and in their verdant beauty offer 
brilliant contrast to a higher range of mountains 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN 27 

across the bay, where naked rocks and snow- 
capped summits remind us that we are really a 
great way from the tropics. We accepted the 
unspoken invitation of the smiling shore, landed, 
and took a long and lovely drive in an open car- 
riage, with summer all around us. 

It is told us that there are only forty fine 
days in -the year in northern Norway, and al- 
though we were fortunate and got more than 
our share of them, we did have some of quite an- 
other sort. In fact we often jumped from Janu- 
ary to July, only to leap back again to December 
cold and March wind. But it will help to un- 
derstand the charm exercised by this wonderful 
land to know that an odd, but most convenient, 
sort of imperviousness seemed to set in for 
us when bad weather came. When it was no 
longer possible for us to expand in smishine, we 
contracted rather cosily into our furs and water- 
proofs, winked off the raindrops, and found 
the landscapes still charming in their more som- 
bre colors. We had many smaller experiences 
of this sort, but our crowning exploit was a 
drive of four hours under pelting showers in the 
Eomsdal, one of the most celebrated of the Nor- 
wegian valleys. It was really all the more im- 
pressive for the impenetrable shadows in the 
deep ravines and the colossal masses of mist 
which swept over the hills like an army assailing 
a fortress. The glitter of the raindrops on the 



28 THE MIDNIGHT SUN 

nearer cliffs, the darkness of the pine-trees, the 
still blacker gloom of the strange mountain- 
peaks with the extraordinary protuberances, well 
called horns, which add weirdness to the effect ; 
the white foam of dashing cascades leaping 
from the hills, — all combined to make a very- 
grand picture upon one side of the road ; while 
on the other stretched the green valley with the 
noisy, riotous river swelling over its rocky bed 
and flinging foam into the air, completing the 
scene as if by the hand of some great artist. 
How could we care for rain on our noses, or 
wind in our teeth, or mud on our garments, or 
shivers down our backs ! The road was excel- 
lent, our horses full of spirit, our party friendly, 
and no harm came to us from what would have 
been a really dangerous exposure at home. 
Again and again, on this unique northern jour- 
ney, we profited by our conviction that physical 
laws were interrupted for our benefit, and that 
we could take liberties with wind and weather 
without punishment. 

Throndhjem (I give the spelling of Baedeker) 
deserves more space than I can give it. Of 
course its crowning glory is the grand thirteenth 
century cathedral, an architectural marvel in 
this spot so remote from the religious centres of 
that great century. The record of its history is 
rich in holy legends ; its treasury has over- 
flowed with reliquaries of silver and shrines of 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN 29 

gold ; Its pilgrims have numbered many thou- 
sands, and its miracles vie with the best. The 
dear old saint Olaf lies beneath the chapter 
house, and we trust his sleep has been undis- 
turbed by all the turmoil that has been made 
over his head. The architecture of the church 
is admirable, and the work of restoration bids 
fair to give back to the twentieth century just 
what brought out the genius and the faith of the 
thirteenth. The city lies on a peninsula at the 
mouth of the Nid, and the fiord called after it is 
very beautiful. I wish I could tell you in de- 
tail of the splendid cathedral, of the drives and 
walks we took on land, and the lovely scenery 
we passed upon the water ; of the grand water- 
falls and fertile valleys and all the vivid pictures 
which arise in my memory, but the North Cape 
cannot be kept waiting any longer, and an im- 
patience to arrive there comes over us when we 
are once fairly within the Arctic Circle. We 
sail by the Isle of Birds, where it is customary 
to give the poor inhabitants a scare by firing a 
cannon and adding a few screeches from the 
steam whistle. As the cliff is a thousand feet 
high and millions of birds dwell in its crannies 
and on its many ledges, the result may be im- 
agined. A cloud of wings darkens the air, a 
cry of distress is heard, and the poor frightened 
creatures circle through the intervening spaces, 
unknowing where to flee. I sympathized with 



30 THE MIDNIGHT SUN 

their distress and pitied the sufferers, but could 
not help laughing to see the more experienced 
gulls, who had evidently learned the trick, sit 
undisturbed by the din and appear to regard 
their younger companions with cynical compo- 
sure. 

The weather was only moderately pleasant as 
we approached the Cape, beneath whose magni- 
ficent battlements we cast anchor at six o'clock 
on the sixth of July. A feeling of disappoint- 
ment at first oppressed us at finding that we 
should see no Midnight Sun at this, the northern 
terminus of our journey ; but maturer thought 
brought wiser conclusions, for me at least. I 
am sure that no grander sublimity or more im- 
pressive effect could have been reached in na- 
ture than by the picture of that mighty promon- 
tJ0ry rising bleak and bare, in naked majesty, — 
an impregnable barrier against the assaulting 
Arctic Ocean, swept by its dark waves, lashed by 
its fierce winds, and crowned by the impenetrable 
gloom of a sky wherein seemed stored the tem- 
pests of coming centuries. The unbroken har- 
mony of the scene, its absolutely tragic dignity, 
its deep and mysterious significance, brought to 
mind a thousand tales of Arctic adventure ; and 
it was easy to imagine the terrors and the agonies 
of those who should persist in passing beyond 
this threatening gateway to the pole. It would 
surely have cheapened the scene, as it were, had 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN 31 

a chipper and careless sunshine smiled into those 
cavernous depths, or gilded the fringes of those 
ragged rocks. It seemed the fittest spot of all 
the globe where man might ask for a solution of 
the solemn problems of human life and hear the 
whisper of '' a still, small voice," uttering either 
the reply that he desires or the stern rebuke of 
his too presumptuous asking. We went on 
shore in spite of the rain that began to fall ; 
many of the more adventurous climbed the steep 
and long ascent to the summit, a thousand or 
more feet above us. We were content with a 
less ambitious scramble over the rocks at the 
base, and the melancholy grandeur of the ocean 
view. I think I may say, however, that this was 
the only instance on this journey in which I 
flinched from following the stern path of duty, 
no matter how high it led. We found a surpris- 
ing number and variety of wild flowers clothing 
every nook and cranny of the black rocks, and 
spreading their profusion of delicate blossoms 
in the most reckless manner under our feet. 
What dear things they were, — how they bade us 
welcome, and how the little forget-me-nots smiled 
when we gathered them, and the yellow ranun- 
culus glowed with brightening gold, and the 
fragrant clover-blossom breathed with a height- 
ened color as we added ever more and more to 
our already heaped-up armf uls ! They bore to 
us the tender message of a sometimes loving na- 



32 THE MIDNIGHT SUN 

tiire, which even amid this surrounding sterility 
and desolation can delight in beauty and through 
storm and cold find shelter for the tiny germs 
the winds may waft into its care. We thought 
over these things until our friends got back, soon 
after one in the morning, much fatigued and 
somewhat bedraggled, but sustained at a great 
moral height by that inward sense of having 
''done the thing thoroughly," which counts 
among the tonics accessible to the much-suffer- 
ing traveler for pleasure. The air grew bitterly 
cold, and the morning hours brought a pelting 
rain and piercing winds. We bade adieu to the 
sombre stateliness of the North Cape and thanked 
him for keeping his visor down and his black 
armor on. Smiles would not become his grim 
visage ; gala robes of rainbow draperies would 
seem trivial and inappropriate ; he should always 
remain like his kinsmen, the mighty Norsemen, 
who delighted only in battle and storm, and 
asked no holiday. 

At Hammerfest, our next stopping place, we 
were quite willing to believe that we were in the 
most northern town in the world, and to leave it 
to its preeminent northernness, for it was bleak 
and dismal enough. We landed, of course, as 
in duty bound, and shivered around upon its one 
street ; we penetrated into a quaint little church, 
remarkable chiefly for the painful cleanliness 
which at once suggested the cruelly chilblained 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN 33 

hands from whicli the women who scrub it must 
suffer. Our memory of Hammerfest no doubt 
does it injustice, but is so strongly impressed that 
it is impossible for us to imagine it without all 
the discomforts of a pouring rain and completely 
soaked surroundings, homesick for the rarely 
coming sun. The weather soon improved, how- 
ever, and as we sailed among the wondrously 
beautiful scenes, bright gleams of sunshine cleft 
the clouds and illuminated crag and billow with 
absolutely startling effect. Hour after hour 
passed unheeded ; our eyes could not weary when 
so feasted with beauty, and our imaginations 
kept fatigue away from our forgotten bodies. 
We did not leave the deck until one in the morn- 
ing, and even then the spirit made strong pro- 
test against the flesh. We compromised by being 
on deck again before six, drawn from slumber 
by the floods of sunshine pouring in at our port- 
holes. The recent rains had apparently washed 
the sun's face and renewed his effulgence, for 
his shining was as of burning flame, his light as 
of the upper glory. 

We passed among the picturesque Lofoden 
Islands, which represent every form in and out 
of geometry, and entered the grand Lyngenfiord, 
which is rightly set down in Baedeker as " one 
of the finest parts of our northern journey." 
The west side is an unbroken chain of moun- 
tains, nearly 6000 feet in height, and as, in this 



34 THE MIDNIGHT SUN 

latitude, the snow line is only 3500, the summits 
are grandly robed, and produce as fine effects as 
many ranges of much greater height. Numerous 
waterfalls glisten on the lower cliffs, and immense 
glaciers descend into the sea. We are also in 
the neighborhood of the once famous Maelstrom, 
which, in our own childhood, was fabled to have 
swallowed the biggest ships, but which is now 
a " cataract formed by the pouring of the tide 
through a narrow strait." The same authority 
allows that it assumes a more formidable appear- 
ance when, on the occasion of a spring tide, the 
wind happens to be contrary and disturbs the 
regular flow of the water. 

I may not stop to tell you of the pretty and 
prosperous town of Tromsoe and its fine harbor, 
for you must be on deck before midnight and 
attend only to this clearest of skies and most 
brilliant of descending suns. In order to watch 
his every movement, we asked, and obtained for 
our special use, one of the steam launches, and, 
like a little band of Argonauts, set forth for the 
Golden Fleece. We were soon beyond the island 
which interrupted the western view from the 
ship, and, steering to the open water, reached a 
point where, from our tiny craft, there stretched 
to the far-off horizon one unbroken pathway of 
golden light, irradiated and intensified by the 
now level rays of an apparently setting sun. 
But even then there was a difference between 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN 35 

this and the setting suns to which we were ac- 
customed ; there was a self -restrained and lei- 
surely dignity about the orb that implied that he 
had no intention of going to bed, or even of lay- 
ing aside his coronation robe. No monarch ever 
held more regal state; no monarch ever posed 
before a more appreciative audience. Across the 
water lay the golden sheen ; the western heavens 
glowed with unclouded light; upon the sun 
himself we could not gaze without the friendly 
shelter of colored glass, but we felt his gracious 
benignity in every vein and responded to his 
promise not to leave us, with an eager thrill. 
Thus the slow moments passed, and silence fell 
upon us, for the one thing that filled the air and 
blessed the earth and glorified the sea, was the 
overwhelming sense of light and life as revealed 
in that resplendent sunshine which had suddenly 
become too glorious for mortal eyes, too perfect 
for mortal praise, too truly of the upper heavens 
to be claimed by earth. We held our breath in 
awe as this splendid creature paused on the 
horizon's verge ; the suspense grew into pain ; 
the too solid world seemed to dissolve and leave 
us alone, with nothing between us and that blaz- 
ing orb but the shimmering golden road which 
led to him. As we gazed, however, a fainter 
glow, like that of morning dawn, slowly sup- 
planted the absolutely terrible brilliancy of the 
declining day ; the sun, though still the same, 



36 THE MIDNIGHT SUN 

assumed a softer aspect as he began his ascent, 
"unhasting, unresting." It was as if, having 
shown us his strength, he would now display his 
tenderness, and with the sweetness of a new 
morning, bid us welcome once more, for our 
daily use and blessing, his dear familiar face, 
from which had passed away all that was strange, 
all that was terrible, all that makes the Mid- 
night Sun unlike all other suns, and transforms 
it, for a time, into the glorious but appalling 
portent of an Everlasting Day. 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETEESBUEG 

The Eussian Empire gleams and glows and 
glitters before the imagination like the Aurora 
Borealis of the Arctic Zone. The rays of its 
warlike glory stream to the zenith with a fiery 
splendor, the pathos of its oppression and its 
tragedies quivers and trembles like the paler 
tints which die away upon the wintry sky. There 
is a similar mystery about its origin and growth, 
about its people and their heroes, about its cli- 
mate and its landscape, its mythic past and its 
incalculable future. Among its many enigmas, 
its northern capital is by no means the least. 
Built in the brain of a monarch before its first 
foundations were laid, insisted upon by him in 
spite of the opposition of nature and the sullen 
unwillingness of man, conceived upon a plan 
that requires centuries for its development, and 
keeping in subjection all the elements that have 
assailed it, — St. Petersburg stands to-day as a 
majestic monument of a despot's will and of a 
despot's power. 

I spare you, of course, all the familiar details 
of how the city rose from the deep marshes and 
frozen mud of the Neva, of the human lives sac- 



38 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

rificed and the brute life tortured, as the dreary 
days and years passed away after the great work 
was begun, in 1703. Peter the Great, being a 
strange mixture of both man and brute, gifted 
with a herculean body to match his bull-dog 
tenacity of spirit, naturally swept away obsta- 
cles and mastered resistance. The result is to 
be admired in his magnificent and prosperous 
capital city. Rightly does his splendid eques- 
trian statue dominate the great square of the 
Admiralty, and form a fitting companion to the 
far-famed church of St. Isaac. A few words 
about this impressive statue : The superb horse 
is rearing at the edge of a precipice, checked by 
the strong hand of his imperial rider, who looks 
earnestly forward, as if beholding the great ca- 
reer which was opening before him, and points 
with his right hand to the bank of the Neva. 
The colossal size of the figures, Peter being 
eleven feet in height and his charger seventeen 
feet, is in harmony with the picturesque gran- 
deur of the great pedestal. This pedestal is an 
immense boulder, brought with infinite labor 
from the Finnish village of Sakhta, four miles 
away. It weighs more than a thousand tons, 
and might have been even more imposing had it 
been left in its rough, original shape. The whole 
effect is extremely picturesque, and touches the 
imagination of the spectator to an extraordinary 
degree. It bears only this simple but dignified 



A FOETNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 39 

inscription : " Catharine the Second to Peter the 
First, MDCCLXXXII (1782)." 

The present city occupies not only the penin- 
sula formed by the tortuous river Neva, but six 
islands, which are connected by handsome bridges 
and give great variety and beauty to the drives 
among them. The only drawback is that they 
are upon a dead level. The vast plain, of which 
this is a beginning, stretches almost without 
a break to the Crimea, more than a thousand 
miles away. Could this immense battlefield relate 
the story of the tribes that have in turn swept 
across its bosom, and torn it with ravage, and 
wasted it with fire, and depopulated it with 
slaughter, history would present many more 
pages stained with blood and recite horrors that 
centuries after their occurrence can still wring 
the heart. 

Such an unpromising spot having been de- 
cided upon, it is most interesting to see what a 
couple of centuries have made of it. Its first 
effect comes from the colossal plan upon which 
it was laid out, — the breadth of its streets, the 
vastness of its squares, the pretentiousness of its 
buildings. From the Admiralty Square, which 
borders on the river and which forms a sort 
of rough half circle, three fine streets radiate 
like spokes in a wheel. The finest of these is 
the Nevskoi Prospekt, which stretches in a 
straight line for two miles, and then, bending to 



40 A FOKTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

the right, runs on for another mile to the great 
monastery of St. Alexander Nevskoi. 

Russia, like all other once foreign countries, 
has assimilated so much of modern cosmopolitan- 
ism, that little remains for the traveler of the 
picturesque variety once prevailing in costumes 
and customs. All the big cities now resemble 
each other, and the ready-made garments of 
English and French shops may be met with in 
India or Japan, in South America or Russia. I 
have in my possession a copy of " Murray's 
Handbook for Russia " of the year 1867, and it 
tells of things and ways almost forgotten by the 
Russians themselves, and forms a queer contrast 
to the descriptions in the guide-books of to-day. 

Fortunately there are some things which suc- 
cessfully resist this tide of innovation and pre- 
serve the distinct features of a past age. In all 
countries edifices consecrated to religious uses 
rank high among the possessions prized not only 
by those who erected them, but more and more, 
as the years roll on, do they become precious to 
succeeding generations. Whether the shrine be 
within the grand nave of a Gothic cathedral, or 
in the vast temples of Egypt, or the minareted 
mosques of Mohammedanism, it is sacred and 
precious to its own devotees and defended with 
their hearts' blood from the sacrilegious hands 
of the unbeliever. Therefore the people of the 
nineteenth century are still blest with the pre- 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 41 

sence of many monuments of faiths once living, 
and even now able to elevate the thought and 
chasten the imagination of the children of to- 
day. The atmosphere of the Russian churches 
adds to this sense of reverence a feeling of sol- 
emnity amounting to gloom. Upon their intrin- 
sic historical and architectural importance there 
is superimposed a mysterious obscurity, a twi- 
light of the soul which comes under the spell ; 
an overwhelming impression as of some unseen 
power, a crushing weight of possible anguish 
and terror as if this indwelling God were the 
God of the dead rather than of the living. The 
ornamentation of the interior is of the richest, 
both in material and in color, and it is in the 
soft gloom of these over-decorated and much- 
encumbered churches that the Russian taste and 
temperament are most prominently displayed. 
The imagination is touched with an utterly dif- 
ferent impression from that produced by even 
the grandest cathedrals which represent the 
more advanced Christianity of Europe. It is as 
if the ancient barbarism and superstition hung 
like a black cloud over the altar ; the Tartar, the 
Cossack, and the Slav remain only half hidden 
under the mantle of the Europeanized Russian 
of the nineteenth century. Ancient Byzantine 
art still holds captive the images of the Virgin 
and the saints, every ikon is presented under 
the same pattern, each sad-eyed Madonna groans 



42 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

under the weight of her jeweled robes, and the 
emaciated saints gaze gloomily upon the pros- 
trate worshipers. The treasure that was wrung 
in the old days from the labor of thirty-six mil- 
lion serfs was lavished upon the churches to 
bribe heaven to show mercy to the crushed and 
the heart-bi^oken. The ikons thus worshiped 
are so unlike any other Christian presentation 
that they produce a curious effect upon the mind 
as of some abnormal creation. The faces and 
hands are often most delicately painted, but are 
so weighed down by the metal drapery about 
them that they only add to the strange unearth- 
liness of these spirits in prison. 

The cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan is fa- 
vored in the possession of an image of the Vir- 
gin that was found unharmed in the old Tartar 
city of Kazan after a fearful conflagration had 
reduced everything else in the town to ashes. 
The church suggests battle and bloodshed rather 
than heavenly contemplation, for it is an arsenal 
of captured spoils froni conquered hosts. Torn 
banners stained with blood hang from the gran- 
ite pillars, — the crimson flags of the Persians, 
the pennants borne by flying Cossacks, the silver 
eagles of poor Poland, and even a tattered ban- 
ner of white silk captured from the French in- 
vaders, — all fading in peaceful decay, but all 
preaching from the same sad text, "AH is van- 
ity." The screen between the nave and altar is 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 43 

made of the silver that was plundered from the 
churches in Moscow by the French and recap- 
tured by the Russians. Indeed the whole church 
may be regarded as a memorial of the French 
invasion and of thankfulness to the God of Bat- 
tles, whose elemental warfare did more to drive 
the foemen from their land than all its brave 
defenders could have done unaided. Although 
everything about it is modern except the sacred 
images, it has no such effect — it looks as if it 
might have been there ever since the marshes 
themselves were formed, and have been busy 
ever since in mellowing and blending its colors 
and accumulating shadows for its dim religious 
light. And whether or not strict architectural 
rules are followed, or the interior of other 
churches imitated, or the glory of this world 
rather than prophecy of a better be its theme, 
it is certain that few could stand in the sombre 
stillness of that strange edifice without yielding 
homage to the presence of the ideas which it 
suggests. 

The church of St. Isaac, however, ranks as 
the finest church in Northern Russia, if not in 
Northern Europe. Its foundations required an 
expenditure of three million dollars to make it 
safe to place its weight upon the marshy ground. 
It is built of Finland granite, and as usual, is in 
the form of the Greek cross. The bases and 
capitals of the columns are of bronze. The 



44 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

great dome is supported by thirty pillars and 
surmounted on the exterior by a golden cross, 
visible in the sunlight at a great distance from 
the city. Inside, all is gorgeous gloom and reli- 
gious silence, save when the impressive services 
echo under its arches. The shrine is enclosed in 
a miniature temple, a wonder of precious mar- 
bles and still more precious gems. The eastern 
arm of the Greek cross is always the Holy of 
Holies, and is screened off from the rest of the 
building by the Eikonast, or high lattice, which 
is sumptuous in material and in decoration. 
This holy enclosure is set apart for the priests, 
and no woman, not even the Empress, is allowed 
to set foot therein. But if one rebels at this ap- 
parent barbarism, it is well to remember how 
short a time it is since the limitations of the 
galilee were in force in English cathedrals. 

The wealth and variety of mosaics and bronze 
work, of malachite and lapis lazuli, of gold and 
silver and jewels, is incalculable, and the lamps 
which burn perpetually before the shrines gleam 
like stars in a cloudy night, — only when the 
eyes have become accustomed to the twilight can 
the wonderful details be even guessed at. Each 
church is an embodiment of religious Russia, 
and an offering from this reverent though super- 
stitious nation to the deity, who manifests him- 
self to them as stern and solemn and jealously 
exacting of their homage. He is like the cruel out- 



A FOETNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 45 

ward nature with whose cold and barren antago* 
nism they must always struggle in this arctic lati- 
tude. Some of the pillars are of solid malachite, 
but with a strange inconsistency towards an all- 
seeing God, some of them are of iron covered 
with a mere casing of the costly malachite. The 
shrine, however, has no counterfeit splendors — 
it cost an enormous sum, and each material em- 
ployed is of the finest that the mines can supply 
or the lapidary furnish. 

One other of the many churches I must not pass 
over, — that dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, 
and standing in the citadel of the famous fort- 
ress bearing the same name. I had supposed this 
fortress where Peter kept his son Alexis prisoner, 
and which was, no doubt, a very gloomy place 
to him, to be of forbidding aspect, frowning with 
sombre stonework and threatening with mighty 
cannon. On the contrary, it looked smiling and 
comfortable as we approached on a sunny morn- 
ing, and \ye entered its precincts with no show of 
warlike opposition to delay us. The fort was 
built by Peter the Great, and though probably 
of little use against modern attack, it serves to 
give an air of dignity and a hint of protection 
to the church, which is really a mausoleum, and 
contains the remains of Peter the Great and 
nearly all the sovereigns who have succeeded 
him. His tomb, like the others, is of white 
marble ; opposite it is an image of himself, re- 



46 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

presenting him as canonized. Also an inscrip- 
tion stating that his stature at his birth was 
nineteen inches and his breadth was five and 
one half inches. No wonder he grew into his 
gigantic proportions. His wife, Catharine I., 
lies beside him. Upon the tombs of the actual 
sovereigns is blazoned the imperial Eagle, — the 
double-headed eagle brought by Sophia, bride of 
Ivan the Great, from Constantinople. It has 
ever since been the Russian emblem. There is 
nothing of the gloom of the sepulchre about this 
church, and strangely enough it has a cheerful 
effect in comparison to the other churches, — 
everything is clearly to be seen and the inscrip- 
tions could be read with ease if one knew the 
language. The image of Alexander wears his 
wedding ring, that of the Grand Duke Constan- 
tine has the keys of some of the Polish fortresses. 
The last resting place of that most wonderful 
woman, Catharine II., may well suggest many 
contradictory thoughts to those of her own sex, 
who stand beside her tomb. Here, too, are to 
be found the tangible relics of the great wars 
and of the bloody pathway over which Eussia 
marched to power. Silent and limp hang the 
once wild-waving Swedish flags won at Pultowa, 
— the Prussian eagles torn from the great Fred- 
erick, the streaming horsetails borne by countless 
warriors, the French eagles, and above all the 
keys of Paris have been treasured here. The 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 47 

church was founded at the same time as the 
city (1703), the fortress a few years later. The 
only exterior beauty of the church is its tall and 
slender spire, which rises to a height of 424 feet 
with delicate clearness and decision, as if indicat- 
ing the road to heaven to those who sleep below. 
The spire is surmounted by an angel bearing a 
cross, and all are covered with beaten gold. It 
took twenty-two pounds of pure gold, which is 
laid upon sheets of copper. As a fortification 
the armament is nothing ; the fort is now used 
as a prison. 

Next to these especial churches must be placed 
the ancient, honorable, and most aristocratic 
monastery of St. Alexander Nevskoi, at the 
extreme end of the Nevskoi Prospekt. It was 
begun by Peter and finished by Catharine. It 
obtains its title from the bones of the canonized 
Grand Duke Alexander, brought from the Volga 
by Peter. It occupies a spot where Peter once 
defeated the Swedes. The sacred bones did not 
enjoy transplanting, and found their way home 
several times. They were only restrained from 
wandering by Peter's order that the monks should 
be held responsible if their charge was found 
rambling at night. The church is sumptuous in 
the extreme ; the tomb of St. Alexander is of 
solid silver, — of a pyramidal form, and sur- 
mounted by angels, said to be " as large as life " ! 
Beside this tomb hang the keys of Adrianople. 



48 A FORTlsriGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

There are some fine paintings by Rubens and 
Perugino. In the chapel are the tombs of illus- 
trious families, the one belonging to the Narysch- 
kyns bears the proud inscription, " From their 
race came Peter the Great." In the cemetery 
behind the church, the noblest Russians are in- 
terred, and form a most interesting historical 
group. The vestments worn by the ecclesiastics 
are the most splendid imaginable, and the pomp 
of the services is unsurpassed. 

But it is of the music at this church that one 
becomes most enamored. If eminence in sanc- 
tity accompanies superiority and celestial quality 
of voice, this choir must indeed be blest. From 
that marching procession of dark-browed, long- 
haired men, with gleaming eyes and solemn step, 
there come the thrilling tones and soaring ca- 
dences which seem to seek again the heaven 
from which they have just been brought to earth. 
Such voices are only heard in Russian churches, 
and seem to belong only in those especial sur- 
roundings which characterize Russian religious 
ceremonies. Those who have visited the Russian 
Church in Paris have had the opportunity of 
listening to some of those wondrous intonations, 
but in the vesper service at St. Alexander Nev- 
skoi, the very gates of heaven are opened, and 
waves of glorious and triumphant melody, of 
solemn aspiration, of penitential entreaty and 
overwhelming pathos, fill the air and sweep 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 49 

above the heads of prostrate worshipers with 
power not to be described. 

But we could not spend all our time even in 
these wonderful churches, or maintain our mod- 
ern human nature at the height inhabited by 
the pallid madonnas and the ascetic saints, or 
even breathe incessantly the perfumed air of 
incense and of heavenly song. We returned to 
earth to renew our vitality, and spent much time 
among the actualities of this busy nineteenth 
century. There were the old markets to explore 
for antique bric-a-brac, and rich bits of tapestry, 
and old laces, and quaint ikons, and all the 
hoardings not yet impoverished by the grasping 
fingers of travelers. The fondness of these shop- 
keepers (mostly women) for their cats, and the 
magnificent specimens of feline suppleness and 
furry perfection and blissful contentedness we 
here beheld, form an ever-to-be-remembered fea- 
ture of this wonderful accumulation of cast-off 
or plundered treasures. Also we found that 
though they may have been long in acquiring 
their skill, the Russian shopwomen had become 
experts in procuring their own prices, and 
though soft and supple as their own cats, their 
claws closed as firmly and gently upon their 
choicest goods. I soon understood why they were 
in, such tender and admiring sympathy with those 
sleek and handsome animals, so peaceful on the 
surface, so strong of teeth and claws, so sleepy 



50 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

in appearance, so alert at a moment's warning. 
The modern shops of St. Petersburg are, of 
course, filled with the most beautiful and costly 
articles, but not unlike those of Paris and Lon- 
don. One delightful expedition which we made 
was to attend the grand military review by 
the emperor at Krasnoseloc, about twenty miles 
from St. Petersburg. An early morning start, 
a fine day, and the company of dear American 
friends, filled out the measure of our content- 
ment. Our equipage consisted of two open 
landaus, each drawn by four stout horses abreast, 
with brass-adorned and jingling harness, and on 
the high box a gorgeous barbarian, robed in a 
long blue caftan, girt about his ample waist with 
a broad crimson sash. Upon his head, and above 
a forest of coarse black locks, was placed a cir- 
cular cap, surrounded with a wreath of standing 
peacock feathers. A face beatific with gratified 
vanity beamed upon us from time to time in de- 
fault of other language. Various hampers and 
baskets provided against an open-air appetite 
and the long drive, — for even among the most 
interesting experiences, time will ultimately 
awaken the sensation of hunger. 

The long drive, though somewhat monotonous, 
presented occasional picturesque scenes, and even 
the monotony was of a foreign and novel sort. 
We passed through several large villages, all of 
which seemed to have been touched by the mili- 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBUKG 51 

tary spirit. Indeed, the assembling of so many 
thousand soldiers could not fail to affect the 
neighborhood of the camp very sensibly. The 
arrangement of the different divisions of the 
army was indicated by small flags, and the inns 
and farmhouses were evidently utilized as lodg- 
ings. Our stout horses took us over the excel- 
lent road at a steady pace ; occasionally an 
unusually big cloud of dust and the sound of 
galloping hoofs heralded the approach of some 
important official, escorted by his staff, or some 
dignitary at ease • in his carriage, at whom the 
moujiks by the wayside stared open-mouthed. 
Some of the equipages were well worth staring 
at, while the horses of the mounted officers were 
superb creatures and richly caparisoned. At last 
we reached the outposts, and, showing our per- 
mits, were allowed to enter the lines and drive 
to the foot of the small acclivity on which the 
spectators were grouped. We had an excellent 
position, and were allowed to mount our chairs 
whenever we liked. A pavilion just above us 
contained the imperial party, and many officers 
blazing in scarlet and gold and snowy white and 
brilliant blue came and went in shining array. 
The uniforms were as various as they were splen- 
did, and one could hardly decide which bore the 
palm, the scarlet and gold, the blue and silver, 
or the dark greens with embroidered trimmings 
and drooping plumes. The emperor and his staff 



52 A FOETNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

were greeted with deafening huzzas, and the 
empress, with her ladies of honor, drove by in 
an open carriage just a little too far from us for 
a study of her face, but the emperor remained 
near us during the whole of the review. The 
pageant began with the firing of cannon and the 
sound of martial music. Each regiment appeared 
with the blare of instruments, and the fading 
sound of each retiring band was overpowered in 
turn by the swelling tones of the next on the ad- 
vance. The young monarch of all this great em- 
pire sat quietly upon his horse^ looking over the 
approaching hosts with a serious, almost melan- 
choly gaze, occasionally lifting his white-gloved 
hand to his cap in acknowledgment of the salutes 
offered him. Seventy-five thousand men — some 
said a hundred thousand — passed by in mag- 
nificent equipment and unbroken order. All 
branches of the service were represented. Horse 
and foot, artillery and cavalry, lancers, engineers, 
Cossacks, hussars, cuirassiers, Uhlans, all were 
there; and the serried ranks passed on till it 
seemed as if a million of men had come to that 
great plain to acknowledge and defend the sov- 
ereignty of that slight young man on whom the 
destinies of Europe may some day depend. 

Each mounted regiment rode horses of uni- 
form color, one troop black, another bay, another 
gray, another sorrel, and so on. It was a stirring 
scene, and suggestive of future problems. What 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 53 

is to be the fate of this interminable array of 
armed men, controlled and guided by a single 
will ? What plans are germinating in the brain 
of that impassive young man who sits in silence, 
like a painted soldier upon a painted horse ? 
Will these obedient thousands die in quarrels 
of his seeking, or form a barrier to his possible 
ambition ? What is to be his own fate ? Is the 
blade of his assassin already sharpened, or will 
he break the rule of Russian sovereigns and live 
to a serene old age among the blessings of a lov- 
ing people ? No other man represents quite as 
much in Europe, and no one yet knows what to 
expect from him. Meantime, the great pageant 
goes on, and one would suppose from the scene 
of to-day that the enforcement of military eti- 
quette and the routine of courtly existence were 
of greater importance than the rise and fall of 
nations or the welfare and peace of the world. 

Not being able to answer these questions, we 
absorbed the immediately exhilarating effects of 
the gorgeous display, and when the last regiment 
had bent its colors to the Czar and the most im- 
portant dignitaries had driven away, we returned 
to our carriages, and seeking a quiet spot beneath 
some spreading trees, improvised a private fete 
of our own and restored exhausted nature for an- 
other hour, in a spot as restful as if no armed 
foot had trodden the echoing ground for centu- 
ries. 



54 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

The drive home in the late afternoon was de- 
lightful. The faces of our two stolid coachmen 
were absolutely illuminated by the good cheer 
of which they had partaken and the promise that 
the abundant remains of the feast were to be 
theirs. What a fairy gift it was to them may 
be guessed from the fact that when the first por- 
tion of the luncheon was given to one of them 
he scraped all the butter from his bread to carry 
it home to his wife. 

Another delightful excursion was made to the 
imperial palace and gardens of Peterhof . We 
went upon a neat little steamer and returned by 
railway. The palace is admirably situated, and 
from the windows there is an extensive view of 
the river Neva from the fortress at Cronstadt to 
the spires and domes of St. Petersburg. The 
ornamental waterworks are extensive and taste- 
ful and the great fountain called Samson throws 
its sparkling spray eighty feet in the air. " Al- 
terations and additions have been often made, 
but the original character is preserved, even to 
the yellow color, which is continually renewed." 
The interior is filled with the usual display of 
royal luxury — articles of choicest workmanship, 
priceless tapestries, wonderful structures of mal- 
achite and lapis lazuli and luxurious furniture. 
Peter surveyed from this spot his growing navy ; 
the Empress Elizabeth amused herself by cook- 
ing her own dinner ; the cottage of Catharine 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETEESBURG 55 

remains unimpaired, and in the small building 
called the Hermitage the traveler may see the 
ingenious machinery by which the different 
courses were lowered and replaced at dinner 
without the apparent intervention of servants. 
The gardens are beautiful, the trees of great 
size, and every detail is appropriate to an impe- 
rial pleasance. Every American feels interested 
in one especial tree, an oak which sprang from 
an acorn brought, in 1830, from the home of 
Washington at Mount Vernon. 

The great palace at Tsarskoe-Seloe is one 
thousand feet long, which means that feet and 
eyes grow weary of the endless succession of 
state apartments and the collected thousands of 
rare and beautiful wonders. The ceilings are 
marvels of decoration, the walls are covered with 
paintings. The statues, the cabinets filled with 
interesting bric-a-brac, the furniture of crimson 
and gold, of blue and of pale yellow, fill count- 
less apartments, and the floors are inlaid in the 
most artistic designs. The amount of gold used 
in decoration is enormous, and one room has its 
walls entirely covered with sheets of amber. I 
thought it more curious than handsome. The 
amber was presented to Catharine by Frederick 
the Great. One room has all its walls covered 
with paintings of different degrees of merit, and 
all fitted into each other without the aid of frames. 
The effect is bizarre, but it is difficult to study 



56 A FOETNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

one painting without being disturbed by the too 
great proximity of those about it. One room is 
chiefly finished in mother-of-pearl, and so on till 
the eyes refuse to contemplate any new arrange- 
ment of color or material. The outside of the 
palace is quite unworthy of its magnificent in- 
terior, though a great effort was originally made 
to endow it with corresponding splendor by 
gilding immense portions of it. Millions of 
rubles were expended, but the harsh winters 
soon disposed of the superficial adornment and 
left visible the shabby structure. Here also are 
magnificent and extensive gardens, and it is a 
favorite court residence. 

I have said nothing of the grand ceremonies 
in the churches, or of the fine drives about the 
islands, or of the crown jewels, or of a hundred 
-other things which clamor for description, — but 
there are limits to writing and indeed to listening. 
The most interesting ceremony we saw was the 
Blessing of the Neva, which began with an ex- 
ceedingly solemn service in the church of St. 
Isaac and was followed by a stately procession 
through the streets to the river bank. The 
priests and officials of various sorts then em- 
barked on board a barge suitably adorned, and 
uttered the time-honored benediction upon the 
Neva, which sometimes requires more than the 
High-Priest's blessing to keep it in good order. 

The crown jewels are not only kept under 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 57 

lock and key of the best mechanical pattern, but 
surrounded with every possible protection by the 
construction of the treasure chambers, the mul- 
tiplicity of guards, and the dignity and inaccessi- 
bility of the officials responsible for them. Only 
by permission obtained through diplomatic re- 
quest can they be seen. The dazzling display 
bewilders the beholder, and to those who have 
seen many royal collections the wonder remains 
as to where they all have come from, and why 
no widespread spontaneous uprising of the peo- 
ple has ever freed these sources of untold 
wealth. The accumulation is simply and entirely 
terrible, and we come away from them to draw 
a long breath among the people who have no 
diamonds save those that Mother Nature gives 
in dewdrops on the grass. So whether we are 
fascinated by the pure gleams of the wondrous 
Orloff diamond, or by the exquisite gem called 
the Polar Star, or the delicate rose-tinted stone 
for which the Emperor Paul paid one hundred 
thousand rubles, — there is always a questioning 
impulse behind our admiration. It may not be 
a sentiment running in an anarchistic direction, 
and one may be glad to personally inspect such 
beautiful objects, — but to a practical mind the 
thought will come that there are more than 
enough to satisfy even imperial pomp, and that 
a portion might well be exchanged for active 
capital. '' For centuries Russia has drawn from 



58 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

the hoarded treasures of Turkey and Persia," 
and of late years the mines of Siberia have 
poured forth gems. 

The imperial crown is a dome of diamonds 
bound with pearls. An immense ruby burns 
upon its top and bears a cross composed of five 
large diamonds. The empress's crown is a fairy 
creation worthy of Titania's wearing and resem- 
bling the delicate frostwork of the winter among 
the trees. The huge necklace of the order of St. 
Andrew is a marvel of jeweler's work ; the single 
diamond called the Shah shines with innumer- 
able facets and has a Persian inscription on one 
side. 

Then the quaint, sometimes grotesque employ- 
ment of precious stones challenges examination. 
There are not only necklaces and brooches and 
combs and bracelets, but all sorts of dainty jew- 
eled toys and odd conceits. One especially 
pretty affair was in the form of a lady's hat 
and feathers, and it required a genius and a 
skill equal to Benvenuto Cellini's to execute it. 
And as an offset to the practical and economic 
suggestions of which I have just spoken, there 
comes a prolonged contemplation of these beau- 
ties drawn from the bosom of the earth, and 
fashioned into all the forms and uses of super- 
civilized humans, — the contrasted thought that 
it is well to have these magnificent accumula- 
tions in which the bounty of nature is enhanced 
and glorified by the taste and the skill of man. 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 59 

From the imperial jewels to the cottage of 
Peter the Great is a far cry, and yet they supple- 
ment each other admirably. The original house 
contains only three rooms, but for protection it is 
built over by another house of brick. The room 
on the right was his study, or work-room, open- 
ing into a tiny bedroom ; that on the left was 
his kitchen, and has been transformed into a 
chapel full of shrines, ikons, and burning can- 
dles. Service is daily performed and it is a fa- 
vorite place of worship for the people. The big 
boat built by Peter's own hands is preserved in 
the outside corridor, and the images he wor- 
shiped are in the chapel. It was in this neigh- 
borhood that the building of the city was begun, 
and the little wooden church, near by, is the old- 
est in St. Petersburg. A great variety of arti- 
cles is exhibited in the cottage as the handiwork 
of Peter, and when to these is added the incon- 
gruous array at the Museum, one is forced to 
conclude that Peter rose early and retired late 
and labored all day with the frenzied and incon- 
sequent energy of a maniac. Why he should 
have made a chandelier, for instance, with his 
own hands, or manufactured his own carriage, it 
is hard to tell, to say nothing of other specimens 
of mere manual industry. 

A visit to the State carriages is full of inter- 
est, not only for the beauty of many, but for the 
associations connected with some of them. There 



60 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

are the gorgeous and ponderous and pompous 
carriages of Catharine II. and by way of severe 
contrast, there is the plain brougham in which 
Alexander II. was driving when the bomb of 
the Nihilist burst through the back. It remains 
as the bomb left it, — the murderous break in the 
back, the overturned seat, the torn trimmings 
preaching an eloquent sermon. The building 
containing the many carriages is extremely well 
planned and lighted, so that one can really en- 
joy looking at the rare and often delicate paint- 
ing and decoration. Some of the carriage-panels 
were painted by Watteau and Boucher. 

This building bears no resemblance to an 
ordinary carriage house, and there are many 
fine tapestries hung on the walls of the rooms. 
At the top of the main staircase is a beautiful 
piece of Gobelin tapestry, representing the sign 
of the cross appearing to Constantino. In one 
room there are three handsome sedan chairs, one 
of which is ornamented with an imperial crown 
with jeweled crowns at the four corners. It was 
made in 1856 for the Empress Alexandra. One 
carriage was a gift from Frederick the Great, 
one was brought from Paris in 1752. There is 
a " calash " brought from England for Catha- 
rine in 1795, — the coachman's box is upheld by 
two eagles, the back is guarded by figures of 
St. George and the Dragon, and the roof is sur- 
mounted by an imperial crown. There is a big 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETEESBURG 61 

sledge with seats for ten persons — but the great 
gem of the collection is naturally " a sledge made 
entirely by Peter the Great's own hands." It is 
in a glass case. The Czar's clothes and provi- 
sions, when he traveled, were kept in a trunk 
behind. 

The collection of modern carriages is very fine 
and the harnesses and trappings rise to the dig- 
nity of high art. 

A visit to a celebrated nunnery (the name has 
slipped my memory) was worth making if only 
to see how courteous and even friendly was the 
reception given to foreigners. Attached to the 
convent is an art school where fine embroider- 
ies, chiefly of ecclesiastical vestments, were made 
and many religious paintings executed. Some 
of the ikons were exquisitely done and the sale 
of these articles adds greatly to the revenues. 
The galleries and cells had the usual conventual 
nakedness, but all was scrupulously clean and 
quiet and the sisters who waited upon us had the 
gentle manner and low voices which seem always 
the accompaniment of their mode of life. Be- 
hind the nunnery is an extensive but exclusive 
cemetery, where the sanctified soil is valued as if 
it were gold dust, and only millionaires can afford 
to purchase space to lie at full length. The 
place looked dreary in the waning afternoon, but 
many of the monuments were worthy of study, 
and often bore illustrious and familiar names. 



62 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

But after all a cemetery is a graveyard, and its 
manifestations, architectural or otherwise, have 
to be within narrow limits. The dignity of 
death is as evident in a country churchyard as 
in the most pompous collection of stately monu- 
ments, and the summer sunshine on simple head- 
stones has a more pathetiq significance than a 
marble obelisk. 

It will be seen that a fortnight is insufficient 
for proper examination of this interesting city, 
and yet in looking back upon those busy days, 
there is the satisfaction of feeling that not only 
did we obtain a clear idea of it as a metropolis 
with very marked individual characteristics, but 
that we were able to imprint indelibly upon the 
memory most of its distinctive features. In leav- 
ing to the last any report of the long visits paid 
p} the splendid palaces known as the Winter 
Palace and the Hermitage, I pay them the tri- 
bute due to their surpassing richness and to the 
overwhelming interest of the vast art collections 
they contain. When many pages are required 
for mere enumeration of paintings, statues, price- 
less and unique antiquities, and objects of his- 
toric and scientific interest, and when these are 
enshrined in apartments each one of which de- 
serves minute description, how even touch them 
in a few lines ! The immense extent of these 
two palaces, which to the traveler form one object 
for examination, prepares one for the labor so 



A FOETNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 63 

delightful though so fatiguing of roaming through 
them. Here as everywhere in Russia, we met 
the most kindly courtesy and the most generous 
openness in regard to strangers. The apart- 
ments of the late emperor, even, were shown to 
us just as he left them, and it was pathetic to see 
the common articles of daily use, few of them 
sumptuous, lying as his hands left them for the 
last time. 

It is best to confine my recollections now to 
some description of the treasures of art in the 
galleries and the museums which occupy exten- 
sive quarters in these almost endless edifices. 
The picture gallery of the Hermitage rightly 
ranks above any other gallery in Europe, for the 
reason that it is the choicest selection from an 
immense number and that all and each are choice. 
There is no padding of inferior artists, no swell- 
ing of numbers at the expense of quality. Even 
the wondrous wealth of the Madrid Gallery is 
surpassed by the Hermitage, and its supremacy 
is established by the fact that one remembers 
it as a harmonious and perfect whole, rather 
than as a mass from which gems must be ex- 
tracted and isolated. An idea of the vastness 
of the Winter Palace alone may be gained from 
the fact that when the emperor dwells there, six 
thousand persons are accommodated within its 
walls. The most beautiful room in it is called 
the Salle Blanche, decorated in white and gold 



64 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

and forming a perfect ball-room. The paintings 
in this palace, though full of national and historic 
interest, do not long detain one from the true 
home of art in the Hermitage. This palace as 
it now stands, after practical reconstruction since 
the time of Catharine, is said, '' as far as ele- 
gant solidity in its architectural form and cost- 
liness of the beautiful materials employed are 
concerned ... to stand alone in Europe." 

Catharine purchased seven of the finest collec- 
tions in Europe, from England, France, Holland, 
and Italy, at prices then considered enormous. 
They numbered four thousand, of which less 
than half are now deemed worthy of the Hermit- 
age gallery. Of these forty-two are superb Rem- 
brandts, sixty by Rubens, thirty-four by Van 
Dyck, twenty by Murillo, while of other re- 
nowned artists, there are equally fine though less 
numerous specimens. Indeed, no artist of world- 
wide eminence seems to be unrepresented, while 
some names less familiar to southern Europe 
rise into splendid prominence and hold the spec- 
tator in rapt admiration. The famous Raphael 
Madonna of the Connetabile palace has doubt- 
less found its final resting-place here. Leonardo 
da Vinci, Titian, and Velasquez are like old 
friends upon these walls, but there are also new 
revelations in the splendid portraits by Franz 
Hals, by Bols, by Van der Heist, and the por- 
tion devoted to the numerous works in these 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 65 

Dutch and Flemish and German schools increases 
one's appreciation of these " human documents " 
and puts the seal of utmost elegance thereon. 

There are many very lovely specimens of 
the French school also, which do not seem to 
suffer from this neighborhood with established 
masterpieces. They are so different in every 
way, and a nationality of touch, treatment, color, 
and expression seems to place them in a high 
niche by themselves. Nothing could be more 
contrastive to them than the portraits by the 
Dutch and Flemish artists, but it would be 
ungracious and unappreciative to ignore the 
charm and grace of Greuze, the fidelity to life of 
Kigaud and Philippe de Champagne, the fresh 
individuality and intimacy of Le Brun. Yet 
how impossible to arrange, except upon a sliding 
scale, all these wonderful pictures, for which we 
must be grateful to so many lands, so many 
epochs, and so many artists ! Rather, let us take 
each in turn, acknowledge and admire each for 
itself, endeavoring chiefly to put our thought in 
unison with the artist, who obeyed the instinct of 
his own genius and portrayed the visions of his 
own inner spirit. 

The eyes that have put their utmost gift of 
seeing to the strain over the picture gallery, may 
lower their demand in an artistic sense, but still 
gratify an intelligent curiosity among the hetero- 
geneous accumulations of the museum. Look 



66 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

first at the relics of the great Peter's industry 
and activity. Here are the carpenter's tools of 
one part of his life ; here the horse he rode in 
the famous battle of Pultowa. Here is the long 
rod which measured his great stature ; here the 
weapons with which he proved his personal 
bravery, and the mathematical instruments with 
which he was familiar. Perhaps that ghastly 
wax mask of his once living face may say a 
word in your ear, perhaps the portrait of him 
embroidered by the unfair hands of his wife, 
Catharine, may cause a smile. There is nothing 
essentially pathetic in snuff-boxes, yet it would 
be hard to look long, without a tear, upon the 
one presented by Louis XVI. upon the scaffold, 
to his faithful valet Clery. It contains the mini- 
atures of Marie Antoinette and her children. 
The exceeding beauty and costliness of some of 
tkese snuff-boxes render them always worthy 
of the preservation that is accorded them. The 
elaborate and childish mechanism of a clock, 
where peacocks strut, and owls glower, and grass- 
hoppers hop, and cocks crow, makes one aware 
that the world is now growing old and serious. 
It is also amusing to see some very delicate work 
in ivory, which was sent to Japan by Alexander 
I., but returned by the Japanese potentate upon 
the ground that he could not accept gifts from 
his inferiors in rank. A pretty trifle is an emer- 
ald cut into the shape of a parrot — it was a 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 67 

wedding present to a princess of Savoy. Of 
larger articles there are a green jasper vase over 
eight feet in height and sixteen in diameter, and 
among statues one called the Venus of the Her- 
mitage, found at Rome in 1859. 

Among the rarer treasures of this great collec- 
tion are the antiquities taken from the neighbor- 
hood of the Bosphorus and the ancient Scythia. 
The first are of Greek manufacture, dating about 
600 B. c. The Scythian articles are absolutely 
unique. At Kertch, in southern Russia, there 
was excavated in 1831 a hitherto untouched 
tomb. It proved to be that of a Scythian ruler. 
His wife, his horse, his arms, his household uten- 
sils had been interred with him. This discovery 
led, of course, to further research, and the col- 
lection ultimately became far richer and more 
complete than any other in the world. Many 
of the articles are of great beauty, especially the 
golden ornaments of a priestess of Ceres. The 
trappings of the horses are also very fine, and 
the variety of objects thus disinterred is most 
remarkable. 

The Greek antiquities are numerous, the 
mineralogical, numismatic, and scientific collec- 
tions rich and various. The school of mines 
can re-fill the imperial treasury with jewels, if 
those already in use should disappear. One 
comes away from the long galleries, the countless 
cabinets, the records of ages in gold and silver 



68 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

and brass and marble, with a puzzled feeling 
over what has been preserved amid so much that 
has been lost. 

An even more suggestive object and one 
towards which we never failed in frequent 
passing to cast admiring glances, is the superb 
statue of Catharine II. in front of the opera- 
house. Take it for all in all, it is the grandest 
and most imposing statue I have ever seen. 
The base is of red granite and supports the fig- 
ure of the great empress, clad in royal robes and 
bearing in her hand the globe and sceptre with 
imperial grace. Nothing can exceed the nobil- 
ity and stateliness of this restful figure. Around, 
but below her, are grouped her favorite states- 
men and generals, Potemkin and Suwarrow, Or- 
loff and others. The whole forms a colossal 
^nonument of most imposing proportions and is 
a fitting tribute to the woman who ruled Russia 
with such successful sway. It was unveiled and 
dedicated in 1873, and cost half a million of 
dollars. 

We stand before this grand image of one long 
since laid at rest, and recall her once more as she 
was in life. Her greatness grows upon the mind 
as one wanders over the land where she reigned 
so long. The record of her dominion over this 
wild, barbarous, but always impressible nation 
reads like a romance, for there is a strong, way- 
ward, passionate heart under her outward seem- 



A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 69 

ing. Here she stands as if to challenge the scru- 
tiny of coming centuries. Clothed in her robes of 
state, the symbols of sovereignty held in her wo- 
man's hand, the dignity of birth and ancestry 
upon her crowned brow, the very quintessence of 
royalty is in her whole bearing. The men below 
her added lustre to her reign. They all, as we do, 
knew her woman's weakness and her woman's 
sins ; but they also, as we do, knew the intrin- 
sic greatness of her nature, the matchless cour- 
age of her spirit, the untiring activity of her in- 
telligence, rendered her the homage due to her 
and obeyed her commands in willing submission. 
Indeed, that must have been a great nature that 
could so shed its sins and even its shames, as 
a snake sheds its skin, and emerge from the 
coarseness and the corruption of a brutal and 
licentious age, with imperial haughtiness undi- 
minished, with intellectual capacity unimpaired, 
— yes, even with woman's beauty still transcend- 
ent and her woman's heart still able to thrill 
with deep emotion. Great honor is due to her ; 
she served her time and generation as a better 
or more delicate woman could not have done — 
her faults were those of the age in which she 
lived, her virtues and her great deeds are for all 
time. She drew around her men of power to aid 
her, and when their courage flagged, she inspired 
and led them on. She welded scattered provinces 
into an empire — she welcomed foreign talent 



70 A FORTNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG 

with substantial aid, she transformed a rabble 
of jealous nobles into a courtly assemblage. She 
brought the art treasures of other lands, to refine 
the taste and awaken the genius of her own sub- 
jects ; she adorned her capital with priceless 
possessions, bringing together collections whose 
merit attracts pilgrims from every land, each 
generation of connoisseurs adding their stamp 
to the verdict of the past. All Russia owes her 
its admiration and gratitude — and this magni- 
ficent statue is her fitting memorial. 

And this city of the North is an epitome of 
the nation of which it is the capital, half barbar- 
ous in that its people are still oppressed and 
ignorant; half super-civilized in that excessive 
luxury and extravagance characterize the lives 
of its aristocracy. The gloom of its churches is 
in deep contrast to the brilliancy of its court 
balls, the ice and snow of its winters make the 
interior life of the rich the very perfection of easy 
comfort, while the poor peasants are still starv- 
ing in ignorance and superstition. The more one 
learns of the history of the progenitors of this 
still undeveloped nation, the more one is im- 
pressed with the immense amount of reserve 
force it possesses and with the certainty that it 
is rapidly taking shape and acquiring momentum 
and direction. The gravest question of the de- 
parting nineteenth century is, What is to be the 
Russia of the future ? 



THE ESCORIAL 

There is perhaps nothing in all Spain which 
would better serve as a typical exponent of this 
grand old kingdom than the famous Escorial — 
that enormous edifice, so suggestive of the vast- 
ness of her great possessions in the past, so 
equally suggestive of her diminished glory and 
her decaying dominion in the present. It once 
served her haughtiest monarchs as a royal resi- 
dence for themselves and their mighty retinues 
— it serves them now as final resting-place for 
their ambitions and their disappointments. 

It is a sumptuous mausoleum where the trav- 
eler IS fain to pause and moralize over the vanity 
of earthly grandeur and the transitoriness of 
earthly fame. It is as completely a thing of the 
past as if its walls lay in ruins, and only com- 
memorates a national condition of things which 
can never return to plague humanity and crush 
the life out of an unfortunate people. 

A railway journey of two hours from Madrid 
takes one over a bleak and barren country, which 
in the early summer makes a praiseworthy at- 
tempt to look cheerful, but only succeeds in deco- 
rating a few favored nooks with verdure and bios- 



72 THE ESCORIAL 

soms. In winter it must well deserve all the 
harsh epithets bestowed on it. 

The huge mass of the Escorial can be seen sev- 
eral miles away, but another locality first arrests 
attention — this is the village of Galapagar. 
Here it was the custom for the royal funerals 
to rest on the first night of the dead king's jour- 
ney to the tomb. This journey was a slow and 
solemn progress attended with much pomp and 
as much regulated by official etiquette as the 
court of the living monarch. Each morning on 
the way a high dignitary approached the bier, 
made low obeisance, and, in stately phrases, in- 
quired of the poor corpse if his majesty desired 
to move on. 

The name Escorial is by some derived from 
the word escoriae, meaning the dross of the iron 
ore which has accumulated from mines still ex- 
isting in the vicinity. Others trace to an Arabic 
word meaning "a place of rocks." 

The palace was erected by Philip II. in ac- 
cordance with the wish of his father that a royal 
burial-place should be constructed that should 
fittingly enshrine the monarchs of that haughty 
kingdom. Philip so enlarged the original idea 
that the Escorial became a combination of tem- 
ple and palace, a treasury and a mausoleum, a 
residence and a museum. Also it was a mon- 
astery, and here Philip spent the last fourteen 
years of his dreary existence, a monkish king — 



THE ESCORIAL 73 

a kingly monk. He admired the Escorial im- 
mensely, for it was not only his own creation, 
but was singularly in harmony with his gloomy 
temperament and austere religious faith. The 
building was begun in the spring of 1563 and 
finished in the autumn of 1584. It has little 
architectural beauty ; it possesses neither grace 
of form nor glory of color ; neither majesty of 
secular splendor nor pomp of ecclesiastical dig- 
nity ; it has only size and situation ; it might pass 
for a peaceful manufactory or an extensive mili- 
tary establishment. Tradition insists that it 
was built in the shape of a gridiron in remem- 
brance of St. Lawrence, by commemorating the 
hideous instrument of the martyrdom of that 
brave old saint. But though it honors St. Law- 
rence it bears no more resemblance to a grid- 
iron than would any other rectangular building 
connected by many corridors and with a pro- 
jecting portico bearing the faint suggestion of 
a handle. 

The situation of the Escorial, however, gives 
it a great deal of melancholy grandeur — and 
impressiveness. It stands in solemn isolation 
against a background of dreary mountain 
heights ; it is itself 3000 feet above the sea and 
seems an integral part of the massive hills from 
which it has been wrought ; while its colossal 
proportions prevent it from being dwarfed by 
the mighty buttresses with which nature has sur- 



74 THE ESCORIAL 

rounded it. A writer thus describes it : " The 
ashy colored pile looms like the palace of death 
when ^olus sends forth his blasts of consump- 
tion which descend from those peeled sierras 
to sweep away human and vegetable life from 
the desert of Madrid." The bleakness of the 
situation may be imagined when we learn that 
even in the hardiest days of unpampered war- 
riors and the most ascetic priests, the winds 
seemed so terrible and the cold so piercing that 
a subterranean tunnel was constructed to enable 
the monks to communicate with the village. It 
is related that on one occasion an ambassador 
was lifted, coach and all, high in air, and that, 
often the long-robed priests were blown about in 
most perilous and irreverent fashion. 

A slight touch of statistics may emphasize the 
impression of the immensity of this peculiar 
building. " The square of the building covers 
600,000 feet ; there are in the stiff and formal 
gardens eighty-eight fountains ; there are fifteen 
cloisters ; eighty-six staircases ; sixteen court- 
yards, and 3000 feet of fresco painting." Over 
the portal at which we enter, there is a statue of 
St. Lawrence fifteen feet high, and just within 
the doorway, as if next in claim to reverence, 
there hang two jaw-bones of a whale captured 
near the coast in 1574. 

It will be well for us to follow the beaten 
track of sight-seers in going over the intricate 



THE ESCORIAL 75 

interior, and allow the custodian to drone over 
unnoticed the stereotyped phrases of which he 
is himself so weary that his utterance is half a 
groan. But what we see makes amends for what 
we hear, and having bestowed an indulgent 
smile upon the upturned chins of the so-called 
kings of Judah which adorn the courtyard, we 
come to the more interesting features of the edi- 
fice. The kings are seventeen feet high, are 
each cut from a block of granite, and are meant 
to be very imposing, but their heads and hands 
are of marble and the unskillful sculptor has 
landed the poor creatures in the kingdom of the 
grotesque. But the interior of the church is 
grand and simple. By an ingenious arrange- 
ment, the choir, which often breaks up the nave 
in Spanish churches, is raised above the general 
level, and is supported by a grand arch, which 
adds to the sombre dignity and agrees with the 
grave simplicity of the effect. The pavement is 
of plain black and white marble, but in the 
elaborate retablo of the high altar, the Spanish 
love of splendor asserts itself, and the gleam of 
gold and silver and bronze develops in all direc- 
tions and with a delightful delicacy of manipu- 
lation. At each side of this altar there are low 
chambers or oratories in black marble for the 
use of the royal family. Around are kneeling 
figures, portrait effigies of kings and queens 
draped in magnificent costumes and rich with 



76 THE ESCORIAL 

heraldic devices, Charles V. with several of his 
family, and Philip II. with three of his wives. 
The minor altars are forty in number. Some 
of these retain their fine paintings, but most of 
the Escorial pictures have been removed to the 
Madrid Gallery. In the right transept is the 
reliquary, which once boasted of 515 silver cas- 
kets of rare workmanship containing relics dear 
to Philip as the crown he wore. They long ago 
became the spoil of the robber. 

Philip II. built only a plain and simple tomb- 
chapel just beneath the high altar, so that when 
the officiating priest elevated the host, he did so 
directly over the dead monarchs. But Philip 
III. commenced and Philip IV. completed the 
extravagantly sumptuous pantheon where they 
now lie. It is brilliant with gilding and rich in 
fine marble subdued by the dim light to a soft 
iiarmony of chastened splendor. The staircase 
leading down to this sepulchre is of marble and 
the walls which enclose it are lined with green 
and yellow jasper. Only the kings and queens 
who have actually reigned are interred here ; the 
kings are in the niches on the right of the altar, 
the queens on the left. There are twenty-six 
niches in the eight sides of the chapel ; in each 
is a sarcophagus. The aiames of the deceased 
are on those already occupied, those still empty 
await future kings and queens. There is another 
chamber above this, which is called El Panteon 



THE ESCOKIAL 77 

de los Infantos, where the princes and princesses 
who never reached the throne are placed. It 
seems a really cheerful resting-place compared 
to the oppressively gloomy magnificence below. 
Large sums have been spent here also, and some 
of the sarcophagi are of exquisite workmanship. 

The sacristy is a very noble room more than 
a hundred feet long. Some of the finest pic- 
tures in the world, twenty-six in number, once 
hung here. They are now in the royal gallery. 
The treasures of gold and silver vessels for ser- 
vice and the costly reliquaries, the sumptuous 
ecclesiastical vestments, which were almost price- 
less, are sadly diminished, but there is still much 
to admire and much that is curious and interest- 
ing. The cloisters are spacious and numerous, 
but a trifle dreary and even commonplace in 
comparison with others we have seen in Spain. 

The grand staircase is like this especial feature 
in most palace architecture, broad and stately, 
and leads to many apartments still adorned with 
paintings of merit and gorgeous in old-fashioned 
decoration. By it we also approached the choir 
of the church which I have mentioned, from 
which we looked down into the body of the 
church. Here is the narrow seat to which the 
Spanish kings glided almost unobserved among 
the monks, to utter prayers and go through 
penitential exercises. Here Philip II. was kneel- 
ing when news was brought him of the great 



78 THE ESCOEIAL 

victory o£ Lepanto over the infidel hosts. It 
is said that he did not move a muscle of his 
face when the great tidings of the liberation of 
Christendom were announced to him. 

A very beautiful chandelier of rock crystal 
hangs in the church ; it was brought from Milan 
in the seventeenth century. The carvings of the 
organ are of great merit ; and behind the Prior's 
seat may be seen the " celebrated marble Christ 
presented to Philip by the Grand Duke of Flor- 
ence," and brought all the way from Barcelona 
on men's shoulders. The figure was originally 
naked, but Philip covered the loins with his 
handkerchief. This has since been replaced by 
a muslin scarf. 

The library is a superb room richly decorated. 
It once contained thirty thousand books and 
many valuable manuscripts. Most of these were 
scattered by the French invasion in 1808. The 
volumes remaining have their edges instead of 
their backs turned to the spectator. The royal 
apartments are hung with fine old tapestries and 
well filled with ancient furniture. There are 
wonderful specimens of the renowned Buen Ee- 
tiro porcelain, one of the smaller rooms being 
entirely finished in this delicate and elaborate 
china, while small specimens of various shapes 
abound. To the showy adornments of these 
apartments a very sharp contrast is presented by 
the naked and dreary chambers occupied by 



THE ESCORIAL 79 

Philip himself. But even these forlorn rooms 
inadequately met his ascetic ideas, and two 
months before his death he removed to a small 
cell or closet from wliich, as he lay upon his 
narrow bed, he could see the altar in the church. 
Here he lay amidst unspeakable filth till a death 
like Herod's finished his strange career. Not 
even sharp mental agony was spared this gloomy 
fanatic, for he came to doubt the conviction of 
his entire life and to question whether he had 
really secured his salvation or lost it by his 
merciless persecution of heretics. His life and 
character present one of the most striking 
psychological problems in history. 

''The Escorial is now but a shadow of the 
past." The two hundred monks who once resided 
within its walls and filled them with their chant- 
ing have passed away, and silence and desolation 
dwell undisturbed in the long passages and empty 
halls. The enormous revenues once devoted to 
their service have all been taken away for worldly 
uses of a later and less pious age. The huge 
edifice exposed to hurricanes and deep snows 
from the mountains required, even at its best, an 
immense expenditure to keep it in repair — much 
of it is now irreparably injured. The convent is 
still used for a sort of educational institute, and 
there are of course a goodly number of employes 
about the place, but not even the buoyant spir- 
its of youth would be proof against the deeply 



80 THE ESCORIAL 

depressing influences and tlie persistent gloom 
of this melancholy monument. It leaves on the 
mind of the traveler an unmitigated impression 
of present gloom ; it calls up images of past sor- 
rows and atrocious cruelties ; the ghosts of re- 
pentant inquisitors and penitential priests wan- 
der in the solemn twilight; the lurid glare of 
burning heretics glimmers in the shadowy dis- 
tance ; the wailing of tortured souls sweeps by 
in the cold blast from the naked hills ; and a 
sigh of relief escapes us as we turn again to the 
sunshine and the softened sentiments which now 
replace the ghastly piety of Philip and his times. 
No more fitting memorial of both could possibly 
have been created than the vast, the gloomy, the 
deserted, the ruinous Escorial. 



THE CRIMEA 

A LEAP of eight hundred miles from Moscow 
will land the traveler in Sevastopol. The trip 
requires forty hours by train, over an admirable 
railway with comfortable appointments. To 
find fault with the accommodations would be an 
indication of a fault-finding disposition or of a 
person unacquainted with the inevitable limita- 
tions of traveling possibilities. The compart- 
ments in the cars were arranged like cabins in a 
ship, and though small were private, infinitely 
preferable to our sleeping compartments. The 
restaurants along the route were excellent. A 
full moon attended us on our journey, and the 
imagination was stimulated as the hours of the 
night wore on and we were borne along over the 
wide plains of Southern Russia. It was easy to 
repeople these vast spaces with shadowy bands of 
Scythians or wild hordes of Tartar horsemen, or 
to see the ghosts of long dead warriors issuing 
from the huge burial-mounds around us. We also 
passed over fertile regions abounding in wheat 
and pasturage and through other districts fa- 
mous for their wool. At many of the towns an- 
nual fairs are held, where immense amounts of 



82 THE CRIMEA 

goods are brought together. At Kharkoff, for 
instance, the goods often represent a value of 
115,000,000, and at Pultowa, at the fairs held in 
July, it is said that twenty thousand carts are re- 
quired to bring the articles to market. Of course 
the modern railway tends to destroy the more 
primitive methods of trade. The road passes at 
some distance from the town of Pultowa, but our 
hand-book reminds us of the famous battlefield, 
where in 1709 the brave Charles XII. was de- 
feated, and so many Swedes were slain that it 
required a mound forty feet high to cover them. 
The Crimea has won a name in modern his- 
tory for deeds of heroism equal to any recorded 
in these old-time bloodstained annals. The 
story of the Crimean war tells of slaughter and 
sickness and wrings the heart to remember, but 
even war has lost a portion of its savagery, and 
the record of blood is illuminated by deeds of 
sublime self-sacrifice and relieved by incidents 
of generosity and tender humanity. What bril- 
liant memories crowd upon the mind as we stand 
upon a spot crowned as Sevastopol was crowned 
in 1855 ! In looking from the heights around 
the city the most inexperienced observer can dis- 
cover its great value as a harbor and its wonder- 
ful position for coast defense. Every day now, 
also, its importance increases, as the Russians 
grow stronger and the Turks more imbecile. 
To those who have not visited the spot, I would 



THE CRIMEA 83 

say, consult your maps and see with what splendid 
audacity this peninsula penetrates into the bosom 
of the Black Sea and makes of itself a perpetual 
fortress for the Russians, a perpetual menace for 
the Turks. Its importance was apparent at once 
to the keen eyes of Catharine II., who ordered a 
survey of the coast and selected this point for 
the construction of a military harbor. It would 
delight her proud spirit to see the magnificent 
battle-ships that now adorn the bay and the im- 
pregnable fortifications which stretch along the 
shore. A handsome and prosperous city has 
risen over the ruins left by the assault of the 
allied powers, and the rush of modern life sweeps 
over the hills still consecrated to the memory of 
a glorious past. It will be long before the heart 
ceases to thrill at the names of the Malakoff 
and the Eedan, of Balaclava and Inkerman. 

The name Sevastopol means the August City, 
and even if its title was bestowed in compliment 
to the empress who ordered its construction, it 
bids fair to deserve the designation through its 
own grandeur. It possesses a commanding site ; 
it is fully sensible of its advantages ; it knows 
that it is a jewel in the crown of Russia, and is 
worthy to be called what it has indeed become, 
the stronghold of the Euxine Sea. Taught by 
the painful experiences of 1855, Russia has de- 
veloped a series of defenses in which military 
art has reached its climax, at expenditures from 



84 THE CRIMEA 

which all but the wealthiest nations might well 
shrink. In all directions, however, there may 
still be discerned the marks of the tremend- 
ous struggle of forty years ago, and though 
most of the injury to the town itself has been 
repaired, there remain the earthworks and the 
dilapidated fortifications which then served be- 
siegers and besieged, during the many weary 
months of war. And there are the unchanged 
hills that beheld the strife ; the valleys that ran 
red with blood ; the plains where squadrons met 
in mortal shock ; and the everlasting sea, which 
keeps no record of the brave men who sank be- 
neath the waves. Above all, there is the silently 
eloquent testimony of the cemeteries, where sleep 
the thousands who fell in attack or in defense. 
In the French cemetery are interred the remains 
of thirty thousand dead, gathered some years ago 
from their scattered graves, and now surrounded 
by a garden which strives to bedeck their head- 
stones, and where many an inscription rewards 
the study of the visitor. Even the summer sun- 
shine only gilds the gloom, and does not dimin- 
ish its dreariness. We drove to the English 
graveyard which is even more desolate and pa- 
thetic. It occupies the crest of a hill, and as we 
climbed the weary ascent, our wheels struggling 
and grinding over loose stones, we saw hundreds 
of wild rabbits scurrying about and fleeing from 
an imaginary pursuer. The whole hill seemed to 



THE CRIMEA 85 

be burrowed by them. Their presence added an 
odd loneliness and forlornness to the scene. 
There are about as many dead English as 
French ; there is a smaller inclosure where the 
Italians lie in lesser numbers. These cemeteries 
are cared for by the nations to whom they be- 
long ; custodians are in charge of them, and 
doubtless all is done that is possible, to show 
them reverence, but their intrinsic character as 
military graveyards and the inevitable associa- 
tion of ideas with the scenes of carnage to which 
they owe their birth render it impossible to feel 
here as one does in the serene resting-places of 
peaceful citizens. The protest against war is 
uppermost in the mind when one remembers that 
these graves are filled with men in the prime of 
life, who were sacrificed in a quarrel that a peace- 
ful diplomacy should have settled. 

The Russian cemetery is, very properly, on 
the opposite side of the harbor ; the hundred- 
thousand soldiers who perished in vain defense 
of their native land are, as it were, collected in 
hostile ranks, as if ready to arise at some as yet 
unspoken call, to drive the foreign dead men 
from their shores. At every turn in the long 
drive which brings these famous localities into 
view, we come upon some spot especially in- 
teresting historically, or connected with some 
anecdote of heroism or desperate suffering. The 
story is not yet old enough to be softened in the 



86 THE CRIMEA 

recollection, nor remote enough to be obscured 
by the mists of distance. We were ourselves in 
Paris in 1855, and well remember how the mes- 
sage, '' Sevastopol is taken," flashed across Eu- 
rope and aroused the enthusiasm of France. So 
the names we are now hearing have a familiar 
sound ; the monuments around us are in memory 
of heroes whose deeds we remember, and even 
the stereotyped recitals of our guides have power 
to call up the image of details not yet forgotten. 
The beauty of the situation adds a charm to the 
narrative, and as the sunset light paints the sur- 
rounding hills, the bay of Balaclava lies peace- 
fully slumbering beneath, and the quiet of un- 
disturbed existence is all around us. On the 
mountain side stretches a long line of half-for- 
gotten ancient ruined fortifications, which whis- 
per a suggestion that after a while even the 
bloodiest war may be remembered chiefly as a 
theme for romance and for song, and we are 
fain to find comfort from our recent pain in the 
certainty that all the generations come and go 
in equal experience of pain and equal peace of 
oblivion. 

The harbor of Sevastopol is very lovely, and 
one can only hope that its sweet peace may 
never again be broken and that the warships 
and torpedo boats may unite with the frowning 
forts and concealed batteries in such resistless 
manner as to deter the boldest enemy from dar- 
ing to attack such terrible means of defense. 



THE CRIMEA 87 

It is impossible while in this part of the 
world to avoid drawing interesting inferences 
from what one sees and hears of international 
complications ; of alliances and possible rap- 
tures ; of political risks and territorial disputes. 
Russia and Turkey ! one has but to name them 
together to feel the prophetic spirit awaken in 
one's own breast or to listen to eloquence from 
some companion. Here, in the Crimea, we feel 
the living and undeniable fact that Russia's 
energies are cramped in a seaward direction ; 
that she is too mighty to brook restraint ; and 
that she must have Constantinople. The fact 
that Russia is a great nation with illimitable 
possibilities of expansion and development ; the 
probability that her material advancement will 
be accompanied by a more and more enlightened 
application of her inexhaustible intellectual, 
imaginative, and spiritual energies ; and the cer- 
tainty that, either for weal or woe, she is de- 
stined ere long to become the foremost European 
power ; these facts invest with intense interest 
every move she makes upon the political chess- 
board of the nations. One wishes she could 
have another Catharine II. to guide her on her 
triumphant way. This vast territory, with 
climates ranging from arctic cold to torrid heat ; 
with fields that could bear wheat to feed a con- 
tinent ; with mines of untold wealth and store- 
houses of accumulated treasure ; with the fire of 



88 THE CRIMEA 

enthusiasm and the frenzy of superstition ; with 
the brains of statesmen, the astuteness of politi- 
cians, the imagination of poets, and the courage 
of martyrs — how can it fail to impress the 
coming nations with wonder and with awe ? 

From Sevastopol we went to Yalta by 
steamer. This affords magnificent views of the 
Black Sea, and its shores for sixty miles, and 
brings us to an uncommonly lovely watering- 
place with an Italian aspect. The town is built 
on terraces, which rise from the water's edge and 
climb the heights, which ultimately expand into 
mountains four thousand feet high. The usual 
accompaniments of a fashionable summer resort 
are all at hand — fine hotels, excellent carriages 
and horses, public gardens and promenades, gay 
little shops, open air concerts, and the usual pre- 
dominance of the fair sex. The air is soft and 
sweet, and though it is now well into September 
the roses are blossoming with the prodigality 
of June. In one particular the Yalta hotel 
differs from those of Saratoga, the chambers 
are large and commodious. Ours is at least 
twenty feet square, lighted by three big win- 
dows, and supplied with an amount and vari- 
ety of furniture which would amaze an American 
landlord. ^ 

The public carriages were the prettiest imagin- 
able affairs of basket-work, painted a pure white 
and bearing light awnings of white cloth striped 



THE CRIMEA 89 

with bright blue or pink. The horses were 
well fed, well groomed, and had great speed 
and endurance. Our drive to Livadia, over the 
admirable mountain road was delightful. The 
distance is about four miles ; the road follows 
the shore at various heights and gives lovely- 
views of the open sea or glimpses of inland hills 
crowned with forests and dotted with vineyards 
and villas. Livadia (which means the Meadow) 
is the summer residence of the Empress dow- 
ager, and it was here that Alexander III. 
spent his last suffering days. The estate con- 
tains seven hundred acres, and the vineyard 
boasts of two hundred thousand vines, said to 
produce most excellent wine. The palace is 
simple and plainly furnished, and, except for 
the number and arrangement of the subsidiary 
buildings, would pass for the abode of a well-to- 
do private citizen. We were most courteously 
received, and allowed to go freely over the house. 
The room in which the emperor died, the arm- 
chair in which he drew his last laborious breath, 
the little foot-stool before it on which his weary 
feet sought rest, are just as he left them, and 
appeal pathetically to the sympathetic visitor. 
In the grand salon below, which is a little more 
expensive in its adornment, the betrothal of the 
present Czar and Czarina took place in the pre- 
sence of the dying monarch. I noticed one in- 
dication of current superstition in several horse- 



90 THE CRIMEA 

shoes nailed to the thresholds of some of the 
rooms in the smaller palaces. 

From Livadia we drove to the still more 
picturesque and historically interesting estab- 
lishment of Alupka, the property of Count 
Woronzow, and a most enchanting spot. The 
drive to it resembles the Corniche Road, with 
cliffs as fine, with sea as blue, with sky as clear, 
and with air as soft as ever blessed the Riviera. 
The shore is ornamented with the villas of the 
wealthy ; gardens and groves, kiosks and pavil- 
ions, suggest out-door life, and the summer sea- 
son must be gay and enjoyable. In the neigh- 
borhood are fine forests, extensive vineyards, and 
lovely gardens, and beyond these are many 
evidences of the earlier occupation of the coun- 
try by the civilized Greeks and earlier still by 
Scythian barbarians. We wished for time to 
search these by-paths and wander in these at- 
tractive places — but in vain. 

Count Woronzow is described as a nobleman 
who "has done a great deal to benefit this region 
and make known its attractions " — but not the 
least of his kindnesses is the generous fashion in 
which he allows a stranger the freedom of his 
beautiful domain. His palace is an old-fash- 
ioned affair, immense in extent, and fairly com- 
fortable in appearance. It has a commanding 
situation upon a cliff with terraces to the shore, 
and with a background in which the hill of Ai 



THE CRIMEA 91 

Petri climbs a thousand feet and rears its naked 
pinnacles into picturesque relief not unlike the 
" Needles " of the Alps. The palace is built 
of a greenish porphyry, quarried near by ; 
the architecture is irregular but imposing, and 
the interior presents the usual interminable suc- 
cession of salons and galleries, of family por- 
traits and elaborate ceilings, of handsome furni- 
ture and rich hangings. The extensive grounds 
are beautifully laid out; planted with a great 
variety of trees and ornamental shrubs and 
climbing vines ; a crystal stream descends from 
the hills and freshens the air and soothes the 
ear with its gentle murmur. The palace fronts 
the sea, stately stone steps descend the hill to 
the shore ; stone lions guard the approach. At 
the top of the third flight a hospitable entrance 
court spreads out on either side. It is paved 
with marble, and is of Moorish architecture ; 
it serves as a vast vestibule, or as a hall, from 
which to enjoy the prospect and inhale the sea 
breeze. The gardens are partly in the style of 
the eighteenth century and are adorned with 
Greek temples, artificial ruins, clipped hedges, 
and other features of a by-gone taste. 

It was at Alupka that Prince Potemkin en- 
tertained his imperial and most imperious mis- 
tress, Catharine II., with all the luxury of 
the Arabian Nights, when she came to inspect 
the provinces he had lately conquered for 



92 THE CRIMEA 

her. Here we may imagine they had many 
a loving interview when the great Empress 
laid aside her prerogative and listened well 
pleased to her subject-lover ; or at other times 
debated with him grave affairs of state and 
schemes for further conquest. In memory of 
the honor done him and his estate, the Prince 
planted two twin cypress trees, which have 
grown to be the most majestic specimens of their 
kind in the world. They still stand side by 
side, as in their youthful pliant days, but they 
have acquired, with the passage of their hundred 
years, a splendor of height, a dignity of out- 
line, a majesty of bearing, that suggests the 
thought that the personality of their sponsors 
has entered into them, and made of them some- 
thing far beyond the ordinary denizens of the 
forest. They hold themselves erect and motion- 
less ; the summer breeze hardly dares to rustle 
their dark and compact foliage ; the seasons 
hardly change their leafage ; they seem to feel 
that they have a mission to the world, though 
they keep silence over the secrets they have 
known. It is as if Catharine and Potemkin 
were still exchanging confidences in this quiet 
garden, as if under this safe disguise they were 
still swaying the destinies of Europe. 

We were greatly interested in this part of 
the world, which not only presents peculiarities 
and developments differing from the rest of 



THE CRIMEA 93 

Europe, but offers raany inducements to indulge 
an intelligent curiosity concerning its past his- 
tory. Time could be well spent in wandering 
over these hills and studying ancient monuments 
which lead us far back to prehistoric times. But 
what we have been able to see, even in so brief 
a visit, has given a vivid impression of southern 
Russia, beyond all that can be obtained by the 
study of many books. Especially do we receive 
a complete picture of Sevastopol and its magni- 
ficent situation, and of the beautiful Black Sea. 
The city is divided into two parts by the bay, the 
northern and southern portions. On the north- 
ern side is Fort Constantine, an immense fortifi- 
cation. Around, at favorable points, are other 
forts, batteries, docks, and barracks. The trip 
to Yalta also gave us a fair idea of the Black 
Sea ; and as we sailed away from the Russian 
shore upon a Russian steamer crowded with pas- 
sengers and bound for Constantinople, it seemed 
as if the most skeptical must believe in a great 
future for this country, now that the wedges of 
civilization and commerce are fairly inserted into 
the hard wood of ancient bigotry and prejudice. 
Besides, after an invading army of pleasure 
travelers overruns a new field of observation, it 
is always followed by the more practical troop 
which brings along the articles which tourists de- 
mand, just as the forest land which is cleared by 
the pioneer blossoms with the beautiful fire-weed 



94 THE CRIMEA 

of our own New England clearings. In spite 
of all the ridicule lavished upon the tourists, es- 
pecially those of our own country, there is no 
doubt that in the persistent demands they make 
for their accustomed comforts, they arouse the 
commercial instincts of new peoples, who dis- 
cover the way to obtain more and more of the 
money in the tourist's purse. 

We left Sevastopol at nine in the morning, 
and reached Constantinople in the afternoon of 
the next day. The voyage was delightful, and 
our pleasure in it was immensely increased by 
our making acquaintance with two English offi- 
cers, Lieutenant-General K. and General M. 
General K. had served all through the Crimean 
War, and was familiar with the details of the 
battles and the various points at which the fight- 
ing took place. His regiment made a glorious 
record for itself. He gave us the most interesting 
account of his experience, and said he had re- 
visited the place several times. He was full of 
vivacity and lighted up his steady stream of talk 
with innumerable anecdotes and brilliant com- 
ments. His ready friendliness and easy ways 
were quite un-English and we were soon excel- 
lent friends. General M. had served several 
years in Canada, and spent his furloughs in the 
States. Our knowledge of the country through 
which we were passing was greatly increased by 
their kindness in pointing out the most inter- 



THE CEIMEA 95 

esting spots and relating incidents of the terrible 
combats. As we approached Therapia, the sum- 
mer resort from Constantinople, a pretty little 
steam-launch came from the English Embassy 
(then occupying a palace on the shore) and took 
our pleasant fellow travelers away, after many 
hand-shakings and hopes of future meeting. The 
scenery of the Bosphorus is too well known to 
need description, and words would fail to describe 
its beauty in the brilliant light of the afternoon 
on which we passed by its picturesque shores 
and, landing at the wharf, were soon released 
politely at the custom-house and allowed to 
climb the long and weary hill which leads to the 
Pera Palace Hotel in the European quarter of 
magnificent Constantinople. 

I must not forget to mention that the day we 
left Sevastopol was the anniversary of its sur- 
render forty years before. 



AN EAETHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 

In leaving Calcutta by ship one must pass 
over one of the most dangerous and most uncer- 
tain pieces of water that a seaman has to dread. 
The Hoogly Eiver is so full of shallows and 
shifting sand-banks that a careful captain does 
not go to bed and the skillful pilot does not relax 
his vigilance for a moment until certain risks are 
over. We were off at the early hour appointed, 
but two hours after starting we came to a com- 
plete standstill, for the tide was insufficient to 
float us over the dangerous shallows. The sand- \ 

banks accumulate so rapidly and change places 
so suddenly that all experience is at fault, and 
only extreme caution can avert disaster. So after 
two hours of delay we proceeded slowly along 
during the day, but at four o'clock we dropped 
anchor for the night, as, even with a favorable 
wind, the pilot dared not move after dark. The 
next morning we passed the spot where not long 
ago an unfortunate steamer nearly as large as 
ours sank with all her crew and a valuable cargo. 
She struck on a recently formed sand bank and 
capsized in an instant and yet she had an excel- 
lent pilot. We could see the tops of her masts 



AN EARTHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 97 

above the water. We felt very glad when we 
were clear of such uncanny risks. 

A delightful voyage of six days brought us to 
Colombo, after having stopped for a few hours 
at Madras. We took on some passengers, but it 
was not worth while to go on shore. The view 
from the deck was very pretty and the scene in 
the harbor was gay and amusing. We were sur- 
rounded by a crowd of boats loaded with mer- 
chandise, the boatmen screaming for customers, 
jugglers performing tricks, divers dashing after 
pennies, and all the usual variety of howling 
and dancing creatures who haunt foreign har- 
bors. The only other incident of the voyage was 
a very heavy thunder-shower with lightning 
vivid and blinding. 

The approach to Ceylon is beautiful, and the 
remembrance of Bishop Heber's well-worn hymn 
was doubtless in everybody's mind, but no one 
had the audacity to quote it. As the steamer 
was dropping anchor we were shocked and sad- 
dened by an unhappy accident — one of the 
sailors, a fine looking young fellow, fell from the 
rigging just over our heads and was killed. 

We were rowed ashore in a small boat, and 
found luxurious quarters at the Grand Hotel, 
which overlooks the fine harbor with its many 
ships and its guardian breakwater, over which the 
great waves of the Indian Ocean fling their surf 
to a height of fifty feet. The air was soft and 



98 AN EARTHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 

balmy, but decidedly hot. But the breeze from 
the sea never lost its freshness. Besides, where 
heat is an integral portion, as it were, of the 
original climate, all sorts of ingenious devices 
are resorted to by which life is made more than 
tolerable. From the lofty ceiling of each room 
there is suspended an enormous punkah. Docile 
and skillful natives keep these mighty machines 
in motion as long as they are awake, and when 
they fall asleep, their employer has only to arise, 
and by a few spirited remarks induce them to 
resume their task. The necessity of thus regu- 
lating the machine devoted to our special use 
developed heat enough to destroy its beneficent 
effect. 

Next morning we took " chota hari " (early 
breakfast) at seven o'clock, when the air was 
delightful, and drove six miles to a grand Bud- 
dhist temple, crossing on a bridge of boats, and 
passing through cocoanut groves and among a 
very dense population. In this temple there is 
a colossal and highly colored reclining statue of 
Buddha. The priest said it was sixty feet long, 
but we thought it about forty. It looked like 
Gulliver among the Lilliputians. This is New 
Year for the Buddhists, and the road was filled 
with pilgrims and the temple with worshipers 
offering fruit and flowers. I have never seen 
anything to compare with the beauty, variety, 
and profusion of this vegetation. Cocoanut- 



AN EARTHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 99 

trees, mangoes, acacias, palms of many different 
kinds, with other unfamiliar trees, and inter- 
spersed with glowing hibiscus, pomegranates, 
bananas, and innumerable other shrubs and 
plants. The whole land is a huge garden. 

In the afternoon I took my first ride — or 
drive — in a jinrikisha and found it very con- 
venient in a foreign land to have a horse that 
could speak. In the evening we had a thunder- 
storm that made our storms at home seem like 
very feeble efforts at sound and pouring. 

In going among the tempting shops we see 
gems as plenty as blackberries, but are continu- 
ally warned by the experienced that we may be 
cheated if we buy without an expert. One stone, 
a "cat's eye," as large as a Spanish olive, was 
valued at $10,000, and a locket, with a smaller 
one set in diamonds, was priced at $1,750. At 
the city market there were all sorts of strange 
fruits and vegetables, among them the clumsy 
jack-fruit, which grows directly from the trunk 
of the tree, suspended by a small, stringlike stem, 
which seems quite inadequate for the great 
weight of the fruit, which is as big as a large 
water-melon. Its rind is covered with rough 
green bosses. 

A lovely drive is that to Mount Lavinia, a 

distance of seven miles over a road all the way 

by the shore, with superb sea-views and dashing 

surf near at hand. Cocoanut-trees border the 

L.ofC. 



100 AN EARTHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 

road, and the huts of the natives huddle together 
in picturesque confusion. At intervals the pre- 
tentious villas and bungalows of foreigners or 
wealthy natives stand in extensive gardens and 
display high-sounding names on their gate-posts. 
Mount Lavinia, which is beautifully situated on 
a small promontory, with the ocean on both 
sides, is occupied by a large and showy building, 
formerly a royal palace, but now used as a sum- 
mer hotel. 

But Colombo and the seashore are not the 
whole of Ceylon or even that part of it most 
patronized by visitors. Here, as everywhere in 
hot countries, the eyes are lifted up to the hills, 
and we follow those who are called wise. We 
start at seven thirty in the morning, for Kandy, 
seventeen hundred feet above the sea. The train 
climbs slowly upward, giving the most exquisite 
views on either hand, and the extraordinary vege- 
tation increases in wild and lavish luxuriance. 

Upon the recommendation of our landlord at 
Colombo, we left the crowded hotels near the 
station unvisited, and went on to a spacious bun- 
galow, called Florence Villa, kept by Mr. Camp- 
bell, or to do strict justice, by little active and 
obliging Mrs. Campbell. Here we were ex- 
tremely comfortable, and the quiet of the place 
was most restful. 

We are very near the lovely lake and embow- 
ered in a grove of tall trees and gorgeous bios- 



AN EARTHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 101 

soms. We are warned to " keep off the grass," 
for quite other reasons than at home, for it is 
full of leeches that fasten closely and cleverly to 
the legs that wander into their domain, or which 
leap hastily among them to avoid a falling cocoa- 
nut from the trees overhead. There are occa- 
sional snakes also, and, on the whole, the paths 
are safest. Even in one's rooms there is no need 
of stagnation, as the slippery snake sometimes 
retires to rest in a slipper, and pretty green 
lizards glide over your walls, or an ugly looking 
blood-sucker winks maliciously through your 
mosquito netting. But what are such trifles 
where nature is so exquisitely lovely ? After all, 
accidents are not very frequent. We have almost 
a surfeit of flowers, and words fail to describe 
the grace, variety, and beauty of the trees. After 
completing her serious and practical work, 
Nature seems to take on a playful mood, and 
indulge in merely tasteful experiments. For 
instance, in front of our door stands a rain-tree, 
of the Mimosa species, which offers an impene- 
trable shade from the noonday sun, but when 
the clouds gather and the rain descends, shuts 
its delicate sprays of leaves, like clasped hands, 
and you would think it had never a leaf on its 
branches. As if in contrast to this fairy-like 
grace ; there is the india-rubber tree, huge, mas- 
sive, with vast roots extending in every direction, 
and distorted as if writhing in agony. The 



102 AN EAETHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 

candle-tree is hung with innumerable waxy pen- 
dants, as if ready for an inaugural illumination, 
and the ridiculous jack-fruit hangs fat and help- 
less on its slender stem. There is nothing more 
graceful than a clump of bamboos, while all 
around are clusters of small sensitive plants 
which shiver and tremble at the touch. 

This is said to be the season of " the little 
rains," so about four o'clock in the afternoon the 
windows of heaven open, a deluge descends, the 
thunder booms, the lightning flashes and glares, 
and water enough falls to drown an ordinary 
world. A brilliant morning follows, and we are 
not washed away, after all, as we feared. As 
Ceylon receives about two hundred inches of 
water from the clouds every year, it expects 
rain now and then. The excursion for the day 
was to the wonderful botanical garden at Pera- 
deniya. Here are cultivated, under the care of 
the government, the rarest and most wonderful 
trees and plants ; specimens of nearly all varieties 
are to be found here. The gardens are extensive, 
and overlook the river, which surrounds them 
on three sides. Everything flourishes here, from 
the nutmeg-tree to the rose-bush, and from the 
tiniest forget-me-not to the tallest palm. Na- 
ture seems to have exhausted her ingenuity, and 
to have sometimes entered the region of practical 
jokes. A very intelligent guide accompanied 
us through the gardens, explaining much as 



AN EARTHLY PARADIS^E — CEYLON 103 

we wandered from one extraordinary vegetable 
effort to another. 

We drove next to a large tea farm and exam- 
ined the various steps in the culture of tea ; 
many processes were very interesting. In the 
afternoon the rain came on again with cheerful 
alacrity, as if it had rested thoroughly from its 
labors of the previous night. It was followed 
by another glorious morning and a world like a 
young Eden. We were early on the road wind- 
ing hither and thither among the hills. We 
passed over " Lady Longley's drive," ''Lady 
M'Carthy's drive," Lady Horton's ditto, and 
Lady Gordon's ditto — each of them a remi- 
niscence of a previous Governor's lady. Then 
through the town, and to a renowned temple 
where one of Buddha's teeth is fittingly en- 
shrined. Opposite is a small domed temple, 
erected over one of Buddha's sacred footprints. 
" The Dalada or sacred tooth was brought to 
Ceylon about 311 A. D. by a princess who con- 
cealed it in the folds of her hair." After many 
vicissitudes it was carried to Goa by the Portu- 
guese, in 1560, and publicly burned. An imita- 
tion in ivory has taken its place, and answers 
just as well. This temple deserves a long visit 
and possesses many articles of undoubted an- 
tiquity. The views along these roads are beauti- 
ful. 

We stopped at a modest bungalow, as our 



104 AN EARTHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 

guide assured us that its master regarded such 
visits as a compliment. We sent in a card and 
were at once politely received by the famous 
Egyptian exile, Arabi Pasha, who has spent ten 
years in this lonely spot. He is a man of grave 
and dignified appearance, courteous manners, and 
speaks excellent English. He was dressed in 
European costume. He seemed cordially pleased 
at our visit, and ready to converse, but he never 
smiled and was really as sad a gentleman as 
one would wish to see. How he must rebel at 
rusting out in this helpless fashion after his ex- 
citing performances in Egypt. His house had 
a lonesome, half -furnished look, as if its occupant 
was ready to move at a moment's warning. A 
little child ran in and out, but Arabi took no 
(notice of it and consequently we did not. In 
the evening the quiet was interrupted by a 
commotion in the next room, caused by the dis- 
covery of an unusually venomous snake, which 
had nestled in one of Mr. Campbell's slippers. 
Every evening I watch the lizards come out on 
our chamber wall and catch flies, which is amus- 
ing, but when I found that what I took for a 
large lizard was a thirsty " blood-sucker " it 
was a different affair. 

Of the situation of Kandy it would be difficult 
to speak in too high terms. Its lovely lake 
bordered with graceful trees of many kinds, its 
exquisite drives and walks, its distant prospects, 



AN EARTHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 105 

its picturesque seclusions, its sweet soft air, its 
matchless skies, its sun by day and its moon by 
night, — how hope to paint this paradise in 
words ! And to its present charm is added a 
long and romantic history and many a mytho- 
logical romance. Legends and traditions cluster 
around these high mountain-tops and these fertile 
valleys. The literature in which these stories are 
embalmed is profuse, and is interesting reading. 
The account of the ascents of the wonderful 
Adam's Peak alone would fill a volume. There 
are many excursions open to the experienced 
traveler or the lover of adventure, and we re- 
gret that too short a stay in this earthly para- 
dise prevents a thorough examination of places 
that we can only glance at. For those who 
spend a summer in this enchanting spot there 
can be no dearth of occupation, amusement, or 
healthful exercise. We left it with regret, but 
also with a firm conviction that even a fort- 
night at Kandy was worth a month in most 
places. 

The descent of the mountain was even more 
interesting than the ascent, and for some reason 
the peaks looked higher and the ravines more 
precipitous. Indeed, it is indisputable that high 
mountain regions appear very different at differ- 
ent times, simply from the varying effects of 
lights and shadows as well as from the angle from 
which they are seen, and an inexperienced judg- 



106 AN EARTHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 

nient is often at fault. We reached Colombo 
at six, but kept on the train to Mount Lavinia, 
which is many degrees cooler than the city. 
The sight of the ocean was in itself a refreshing 
influence, and a brilliant sunset finished the day 
in glory. In the middle of the night a storm 
came on to which those we had previously ad- 
mired seemed trivial enough. The floods roared, 
the thunder crashed, the dazzling lightning illu- 
minated the vast area of ocean that stretched 
beneath my windows, and rolled its huge billows 
mountain high upon the black cliffs below. 
When these storms come on one can think of 
nothing else. The nights were like those of 
Tennyson's Lucretius, — 

" Storms in the night ! for thrice I heard the rain rushing : 
And once the flash of the thunder-bolt — 
Methought I never saw so fierce a fork — 
Struck out the streaming mountain-side." 

The roar of the waves was like that of an angry 
lion, the rain on the roof like the tramp of 
armed men. As the hotel is really only a 
summer-palace it is not of the most substantial 
construction, and so much of the water trickled 
through the roof that I finished my slumbers 
under an umbrella skillfully disposed over my 
headboard. I do not doubt the two hundred 
inches (sixteen feet) of annual rain, or that 
nearly half that quantity, fell while we were 
there. 



AN EARTHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 107 

The Buddhist temples of Ceylon are fine 
specimens of their kind, and the traveler is 
allowed to go about in them with freedom. The 
priestly guardians are courteous, and accept 
small gratuities with apparent satisfaction. The 
temple decorations consist largely of high-colored 
representations of scenes in Hell, and portray a 
harrowing variety of punishments and tortures 
revealing great imagination in the artist, but 
forming a hideous contrast to the temple shrines 
themselves, where gigantic images of Buddha 
smile on the worshiper with such genial bene- 
volence that mercy and forgiveness seem still 
possible for the most hardened sinner. These 
monstrous idols are painted in the most gaudy 
colors, and would answer as antediluvian dolls. 
They receive alike unmoved the prayers of the 
faithful, the flowers and fruits offered by the 
timid crowd of suppliant pilgrims, and the con- 
temptuous smile of the unbelieving foreigner. 
But an afterthought of kinder criticism removes 
contempt, if one watches the simple natives as 
they kneel in awestruck silence, or gently lay 
upon the altar the profusion of flowers they have 
brought from their distant homes. Even the 
most superstitious observance may claim indul- 
gence when it springs from honest faith, and in 
this fair land, where everything speaks of peace 
and plenty in nature and ease and ignorant 
content in man, we feel no desire to seek for sin, 



108 AN EARTHLY PARADISE — CEYLON 

or shame, or degradation. We grant ourselves 
temporary immunity from all but fair and sweet 
imaginings, while Ceylon extends to us its lavish 
hospitality and spreads before us all that can 
please the eyes and fill the mind with undying 
memories of the pure skies, the glorious land- 
scapes, and the tropic splendors of this gem, set 
in the bosom of the great Indian ocean. 



MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 

Among the names whose simple utterance 
serves to bring to mind the glory of the past 
and the splendor of the present, that of Moscow 
stands certainly in the front rank. Its history 
goes back over many centuries and numbers 
extinct dynasties in its record — but the pulse 
of a vigorous vitality throbs to-day within its 
walls. The East and the West, the North and 
the South meet under its brilliant sky; the 
Cossack jostles the European, the moujik makes 
way for the tourist. Volumes have been written 
upon it ; volumes can still be supplied with 
hitherto unused material ; or the traveler may 
continue to read its romance in its monuments 
as in still more eloquent language. The pages 
of such a chronicle, which I may try to trans- 
late, must of necessity be brief and imperfect 
and with all the vast field of the historian, the 
antiquary, the poet and the artist, offering end- 
less attraction, it will be best for me modestly to 
confine myself chiefly to my own experiences, 
and describe those points of interest which ap- 
pealed especially to my own tastes and came 
most clearly within my own comprehension. 



110 MOSCOW --THE HOLY CITY 

Even within these discreet limits I should find, 
if not restrained, enough to tempt my pen into 
interminable wanderings. Something also of 
the inconsequent character of Muscovite history, 
architecture, traditions, and . national character- 
istics may be permitted me, for if my transi- 
tions are abrupt and the connecting links of my 
chain are not at once discernible, please re- 
member that in Moscow itself one can jump 
quite as suddenly from the Occidental to the 
Oriental and from civilization to barbarism. 

And first a word of the city as a whole. It 
stands in the midst of a wide plain, through 
which winds the little river Moskwa, a tributary 
of the Volga. In the centre of the present city 
and upon a moderate elevation the celebrated 
citadel, the world-renowned Kremlin, rears its 
battlements, its towers, and its shrines. Nowhere 
else in the world does such a comparatively 
limited space contain such a variety of edifices, 
such a brilliant combination of form and color, 
or produce such a piquant and original effect. 
Viewed from outside, it makes a grand impres- 
sion ; it is as a royal crown upon the brow of the 
hill which itself commands the wide valley and 
dominates over the surrounding country. A 
drive to Sparrow Hills in the vicinity, famous as 
the spot from which Napoleon gazed upon the 
burning city, will give the traveler one of the 
most interesting views in the world. This view 



MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 111 

of Moscow and the intervening valley has been 
compared with the almost unapproachable 
beauty of Constantinople, and one observant 
traveler remarks : "I know not which is the 
more beautiful city. The one rises from the 
water's edge, its white minarets melting into the 
blue sky of the south ; the other towers and 
flashes from the northern plain, and the lofty 
domed monasteries on its borders stand like sen- 
tinels keeping watch over its sacred shrines." 

It is this grand assemblage of churches 
and saint-crowned gateways, culminating in the 
Kremlin, which gives its especial character to 
Moscow. The religious element is everywhere, 
but it is in the Kremlin that one realizes that 
Moscow is indeed a Holy City and beloved of 
the saints it has so long delighted to honor. 
All through Russia altars and shrines abound, 
the superstition of the people has always sought 
relief in tangible and visible expression, and 
doubtless priests and nobles still find it worth 
while to foster this form of religious instinct, 
for the Russian is an odd sort of smothered vol- 
cano and his inward fires require careful man- 
agement. So the cities swarm with shrines and 
serve as name-books for the saints, but Moscow 
exceeds all others, for there, — 

" Above each gate a blessed saint 
Asks favor of the skies " — 

and while many other cities also bear the title of 



112 MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 

holy — and boast of numerous altars and mira- 
cles, — 

" Moscow blends all rays in one, 
They are the stars and she the sun." 

An old English traveler once wrote, " One 
might imagine all the states of Europe and of 
Asia had sent a building by way of represen- 
tative to Moscow," and very naturally, the first 
impression is a little chaotic. It needs but a 
short time, however, to resolve this chaos into 
a delightful harmony and to find color of the 
most brilliant, form of the most bizarre, orna- 
mentation of the most elaborate, upon buildings 
old and new, great and small, which glide into 
their respective places with a tender and suc- 
cessful regard for each other, and which exhibit 
each at its best because set off by its neighbor. 
Indeed the separate portions of this vast pano- 
rama combine so thoroughly, that the memory 
accepts the result as a brilliant whole, and it 
requires an effort of the critical faculty to ar- 
range its component parts for closer examina- 
tion. For instance, there is one especial view 
of the Kremlin from the stone bridge across the 
Moskwa, to which the stranger is always taken. 
It is a beautiful view, and whether you see it in 
the glowing light of the midday sun, or in the 
mysterious twilight, or under the silver moon 
when shadows add their weird influence, — you 
accept the Kremlin as a single mass as readily 



MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 113 

as if it were really one single edifice erected for 
a single object. But when you enter into the 
battlemented inclosure, you are confronted by 
quite new conditions; the mighty mass de- 
velops before your eyes into numerous distinct 
buildings, each of which has its own marked in- 
dividuality. " The Kremlin is both fortress and 
altar ; the religious heart of Russia ; the place 
of her holiest shrines and the deposit of her 
proudest trophies." Within its walls, some two 
miles in circumference, are the edifices wherein 
are performed the most important ceremonies ; 
for St. Petersburg, proud and splendid as it is, 
is only a mushroom growth in comparison with 
Moscow. Therefore it is here in the Cathe- 
dral of the Assumption that the emperors are 
crowned; in the neighboring Cathedral of the 
Annunciation that their nuptials are solemnized ; 
and in that of the Archangel Michael close by 
that Russia shelters the remains of its ancient 
monarchs. Magnificent preparations were in 
progress on all sides, at the time of our visit, 
for the coronation of Nicholas II. next May, 
and enough fresh gold was being lavished on 
domes outside and pillars and cornices and 
screens within to bankrupt an ordinary treasury. 
The interiors of these churches, brilliant as they 
prove to be on examination, lavish in gold and 
silver work, rich in color, with paintings on wall 
and arch, are so faintly lighted by their small. 



114 MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 

high windows, and so obscured by the massive- 
ness of the architecture, that they are at first 
oppressive in their gloom. But soon the eyes 
get accustomed to the twilight ; the symbols 
around reveal their outlines ; a peculiar charm 
steals over the senses, bringing full acceptance 
of the grand solemnity of the place. The in- 
cense-laden atmosphere is like a gauzy veil, which 
softens into grace the rigid Byzantine images, 
while the gems with which the ikons and the 
reliquaries sparkle shed a mysterious glow on 
the hushed gloom. There are no seats in the 
Russian churches, all stand or kneel during the 
long service ; the high and the low, the per- 
fumed and the unwashed, mingle and touch each 
fOther as equals in the sight of Heaven. The 
sublime chanting of the choir is different from 
that in other lands ; the most wonderful voices 
are found among " the religious," and they are 
trained to a transcendent emotionalism almost 
incredible. Those who have heard vespers in 
the monastery of St. Alexander Nevskoi will not 
accuse me of exaggeration ; no one could ever 
forget the mighty resonance of those soaring 
tones which fill the air ; the echoing and re- 
echoing harmony that floats from dome to dome, 
or steals with subdued sweetness from shrine to 
shrine. 

From the sumptuous cathedrals of the Krem- 
lin it is but a step to the " Large Palace " where 



MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 115 

the emperor and empress dwell on their visits 
to Moscow. It is built upon the spot where 
the ancient palace of the Tartar chieftains 
stood. It is splendid and elaborate and spacious 
after the manner of palaces. It boasts of one 
superlatively magnificent room, a hall dedicated 
to the military order of St. George, with the 
record of more than five hundred regiments em- 
blazoned on its walls. Another hall is devoted 
to St. Alexander Nevskoi and is gorgeously 
furnished in pink and gold. Next comes the 
immense hall of St. Andrew, the oldest order of 
knighthood in Russia; its walls are hung in 
blue, the color of the order. Here is the em- 
peror's throne; this room requires over two 
thousand candles for festal occasions. In this 
palace is the famous Red Staircase w^hich is only 
used on state occasions, as when the emperor 
goes forth to his coronation. 

It was up this staircase that Napoleon ascended 
when he took possession of the Kremlin. The 
right wing of the palace is called the Treasury, 
and therein are stored more precious things 
than Aladdin's Lamp could conjure together. 
It seems an impertinence to attempt a descrip- 
tion of places so well known to the traveling 
world and so classified in the catalogues and 
hand-books ; but, after all, there is some value in 
personal impressions, and in such immense col- 
lections some articles may be appreciated by 



116 MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 

one that are unnoticed by another. Often it is 
only necessary to enumerate the names of arti- 
cles, for their history is concisely told by the 
appellations they bear. So, among innumerable 
specimens of armor and weapons and battle- 
flags and the rich spoils of war, we find a poor, 
rough, wooden chair borne on poles, and scarred 
with bullet holes and sabre cuts. This was the 
rude litter on which Charles XII. was borne 
from the battlefield of Pultowa. A little far- 
ther on, in a small casket covered with crimson 
velvet, sadly faded, there lies the ancient con- 
stitution and charter of poor Poland, like the 
relic of some discarded saint. In one room 
stands the little bed in which Catharine the 
Great cradled her infant son Paul. Its silken 
curtains hang from cornices in which are en- 
crusted precious stones in gay designs. So, too, 
there are innumerable articles which once be- 
longed to Napoleon — his memory remains sur- 
prisingly fresh in the Russian mind and re- 
minders of him are very frequent. At the end 
of the long suite of rooms in this very gallery 
there is a fine marble statue of the defeated 
emperor, who seems to be gazing sadly at the 
people he failed to conquer ; the effect of his 
sudden presence in these surroundings is as if 
a word of sarcasm had been loudly uttered. And, 
as history has contrasts greater than fiction, we 
see in an adjoining apartment, in proximity 



MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 117 

to the booty captured in war against the French 
— the costly gifts presented in friendship a few 
years before by Napoleon to his dear friend 
Alexander. These consist in part of superb 
specimens of Sevres porcelain, gorgeous vases, 
and exquisite products of the loom. 

But the many articles of sentimental interest 
must not distract us from the especially costly 
and intrinsically valuable treasures that make 
of this collection one of the great wonders of 
the world. In abundance and splendor the 
imperial jewels, most of which are only used on 
the most important state occasions, are equaled 
by those belonging to the defunct sovereigns of 
kingdoms which Russia has either conquered 
by her valiant soldiers or annexed by her astute 
statesmen. So, too, the adornments of her em- 
perors and empresses are rivaled in sumptuous- 
ness by the magnificent vestments of her ecclesi- 
astics. Everywhere there are cloth of gold and 
silver, fretwork and embroidery of absolutely 
glorious beauty. One almost wearies of gems, 
so superabundant is their display in all direc- 
tions and so difficult is it to retain a clear 
recollection even of those that win our highest 
admiration. I do remember very distinctly the 
magnificent solitaire emeralds which surmount 
the two maces, or wands, carried before the coro- 
nation processions. Also one especial full-dress 
sword ; in the hilt and scabbard the countless 



118 MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 

diamonds are of most delicate lustre, and shim- 
mer like sunbeams on the water. In the next 
room are the various thrones used by different 
monarchs of Russia, and others captured from 
conquered sovereigns. That of Alexis Michaelo- 
vich — son of Michael and father of Peter the 
Great, was brought from Persia, and is a marvel 
of oriental workmanship. It glitters with the 
light of 876 diamonds, 1223 rubies, and un- 
counted turquoises and pearls. The orb of 
sovereignty opposite it bears 68 large diamonds, 
89 fine rubies, 50 emeralds, and 23 sapphires. 
Only by these figures can one get any adequate 
idea of the lavish profusion with which precious 
stones are employed in decoration. One throne 
is of carved ivory and was presented to Ivan, 
who first took the title of Czar, or Caesar. The 
throne was presented by ambassadors from 
Rome. Another contains a fragment of the 
True Cross ; another is a solid mass of encrusted 
turquoises, pearls, and rubies. Michael Ro- 
manoff, the founder of the family, had two 
crowns, one surmounted by an enormous emerald. 
Perhaps you will wonder at seeing the boots of 
Peter I. and Paul I. as carefully preserved as 
these priceless gems. The crowns surpass the 
thrones in costliness and outdazzle them in 
splendor. One is shaped like a mitre and is 
ornamented with 900 diamonds, and bears at the 
top a brilliant ruby of great size supporting an 



MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 119 

exquisite diamond cross. " The costliest crown 
of all is that of Catharine I., made by order of 
her husband, the all-prevailing Peter the Great ; 
it contains a wonderful ruby purchased in Pekin, 
and 2536 diamonds." But why pursue the end- 
less catalogue of jeweled objects, or seek to 
describe the gorgeous coronation-robes and man- 
tles ; the huge pieces of gold and silver plate ; 
the wonderful enamel work ; the guns and pis- 
tols ; the swords and daggers, each one as rich 
in gems, as perfect in finish? And how leave 
unmentioned the beautiful relics of old days of a 
more peaceful sort ; connected more closely with 
the personal history of their famous owners, 
sometimes filled with pathetic interest and re- 
calling tragic events ? The eyes fail at last in 
the attempt to examine them, the pen fails in 
the effort to depict them ; the imagination fails 
to recall their various excellences. There is, 
however, one especial object on which to pause 
— the saddle of Catharine 11. It is a man's 
saddle, for she was colonel of her regiment, and 
her portrait near by shows her to great advan- 
tage in full uniform, booted and spurred and 
astride a handsome gray horse. This wonderful 
saddle ceases to be a mere bit of harness, and is 
an historic fact and an artistic curiosity. The 
seat is covered with cloth of gold and silver ; the 
chasings and buckles are of fretted gold; the 
bridles are of gold braid strung with jewels ; and 



120 MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 

every available space on saddle or harness liter- 
ally blazes with gems. The frontlet for the 
headpiece would grace a crown, and the breast- 
plate bears a huge diamond which sparkles like a 
beacon-light, and is set off by circles of pink 
topaz, pearls, and amethyst which surround it. 
In the back of the saddle are grouped masses of 
smaller gems in iridescent beauty, and the stir- 
rups are so exquisitely wrought in gold and 
jewels that they would not look out of place in 
a lady's boudoir. The glass case in which this 
gorgeous construction gleams and glows is al- 
ways surrounded by visitors. Taken altogether 
I think this saddle is one of the most sumptuous 
and absolutely splendid articles of luxury I have 
ever seen. I could find no estimate of its money 
value, but even that must be very great. 

It must, by this time, be apparent that it is 
easier to expand over these various attractions 
than to give up the attempt to place them before 
your eyes ; and yet no amount of time available 
would suffice to grasp their variety and beauty, 
even upon the spot. Indeed, only exhaustion 
reconciled us to descending the broad staircase, 
at our last visit, and bidding farewell to the 
multitudinous treasures of that wonderful mu- 
seum. How much one would know of human 
life and national history and the evolution of 
empires if one could pursue the clues here 
temptingly offered ! 



MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 121 

We pay our respects to the great bell, which 
is still majestic and dignified, though doomed to 
gaze always on a huge and helpless fragment of 
itself close Ify. This is the biggest bell in the 
world, and is about one hundred and sixty years 
old. When it was seven years old the tower in 
which it hung was burned to the ground, and the 
poor bell crashed so deep into the earth that it 
did not see the light for a hundred years, when 
the Emperor Nicholas exhumed it from its long 
sleep. It weighs four hundred thousand pounds, 
and the metal is worth about 1200,000. The 
tower of Ivan Velike rises near the bell, some 
three hundred and twenty-five feet in height, and 
is more than a century older, dating from 1600. 
It contains forty magnificent bells, which are all 
rung on Easter Eve. 

The arsenal, also within the Kremlin, is an 
immense building, rich in trophies of war and ab- 
solutely hedged about with cannon captured from 
Napoleon and other artillery whose death-deal- 
ing energy is now extinct. At the palace of the 
Holy Synod we saw scores of jewel-laden priestly 
robes and countless utensils for sacramental ser- 
vice. We examined the extraordinary crucibles 
and retorts and silver articles employed in the 
preparation of the sacred oil. The ampulla of 
chased silver which contains the consecrated 
liquid, was sent long ago from Constantinople. 
One drop from this receptacle is sufficient to 
sanctify the compound of "wines and oil and 



122 MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 

spices and balsams," which is annually prepared 
in the silver retorts and doled out to all the 
bishops of the realm for use in baptism. 

Among the most striking features of the 
Kremlin are its five towers and gates of entrance 
— of these the Spaskoi or Holy Gate is the most 
celebrated. Over it has hung ever since the 
foundation of the city a picture of the Saviour 
which is an object of the greatest reverence to 
every Russian from the emperor to the lowest 
peasant, and neither would dare to pass under 
it without removing his hat. Every man, na- 
tive or foreign, who passes through the gate, 
remains with uncovered head till he emerges 
from the shadow of the sacred image. This 
image, often carried in battle in the old days, is 
said always to have secured victory to the Rus- 
sians. Through this gate many a triumphal pro- 
cession has returned from conquest, and many a 
Tartar troop has been destroyed in vain efforts 
to obtain entrance. It is defended more effectu- 
ally by superstition than by force, and tradition 
avers that every attempt to injure or to capture 
it has been thwarted by some miracle. Indeed, 
every tower which rises high above the Kremlin 
walls and defines its outlines against the sky has 
its story in the ancient annals, and from these 
battlemented walls, from which the peaceful 
valley is now seen, there has been hurled back 
many an assailing army at the cost of rivers of 
patriotic blood. 



MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 123 

Another gateway ranks high in the veneration 
of the public. Here is enshrined the miracu- 
lous Virgin of Iberia, called " The Iberian 
Mother of God," who heals the sick, blesses the 
dying, and consoles all who are in trouble. She 
has an itinerant mission, and goes from her shrine 
in person to the sick and the unhappy. One day 
we were so fortunate as to see her start upon her 
journey. A large and bright blue carriage of pe- 
culiar construction stood in waiting, surrounded 
by a reverent multitude. Presently a richly robed 
priest, with attendants came from the little chapel, 
bearing carefully the large, heavily framed ikon. 
Then the odd shape of the carriage was ex- 
plained, for the picture was slowly pushed into 
deep grooves, and rested securely in an almost 
upright position. The priest also entered the 
carriage, the door was closed, the horses were 
driven away at a rapid pace, and the crowd re- 
turned to its daily work. There is something to 
be said in favor of thus connecting the oversight 
and interest of the heavenly powers with the 
sorrows and woes of earth. 

The wide moat which originally surrounded 
the Kremlin has long since fallen into line with 
other defenses of the s^me sort in other fort- 
resses, and been transformed into a smiling gar- 
den, where the peaceful citizens of to-day may 
sit and recall the memory of great deeds per- 
formed by their warlike predecessors on this very 
spot. 



124 MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 

There are, of course, many other points of in- 
terest in and around the city, besides the Krem- 
lin. The ancient edifices still hold their place, 
but the modern city expands about them in spa- 
cious streets and noble squares. The enormous 
foundling hospital has both summer and win- 
ter quarters, and is said to be the largest in the 
world. Here, too, the everlasting two-sidedness 
of vexed questions reasserts itself upon the sec- 
ond thought of the spectator. The little waifs, 
whose coming into the world is accompanied by 
grave objections from the simply moral point of 
view, are cared for, educated, and guided by the 
state as the children of the poor really cannot 
be by their ignorant and reckless parents. They 
are kept clean in mind and body, are disciplined 
and taught, and according to their character and 
capabilities are transferred to the army or to 
some industrial pursuit. Instead of dangerous 
vagabonds, they have at least the chance to be- 
come useful members of society, and as there is 
little stigma attached to their origin, not a few 
of them have risen to eminence in many differ- 
ent directions. 

We paid a long visit to the Donskoi Monas- 
tery, dedicated to the Virgin of the Cossacks of 
the Don. The general effect of the interior is 
weird and strange, with its over-laden Byzantine 
decorations — meagre saints and corpse-like Ma- 
donnas, gorgeous with color and gold. The 



MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 125 

cemetery belonging to this monastery is so sacred 
that immense sums are paid for the privilege of 
interment within its bounds. There is an air of 
old-fashioned dignity about the whole place. 

The church of St. Saviour, on the contrary, is 
radiant in light, and cheerful and distinctly gay 
in interior adornment. It has cost large sums, 
but it expresses Russian patriotism, and is a 
grand memorial of the defeated invasion of the 
French. It was only completed in 1884, and 
has employed the talent of many artists. 

We drove one day through the extensive Peter- 
skoi Park, where the royal pleasance stretches 
far and wide ; we paid a visit to the quaint old 
palace of the Romanoffs ; we dined at a magnifi- 
cent modern restaurant, where music was supplied 
by an apparently complete orchestra, repre- 
sented by an organ run by machinery. We went 
to the remote manufactory of enamel-work and 
brought away lovely specimens ; we haunted the 
old market and the new arcades, which are 
rapidly driving the bazaar out of existence. In 
fact we did enough, and saw enough, and felt 
enough in this peerless city to fill a month with 
retrospective talk and a lifetime with memories. 

I must say a few words of the extraordinary 
Cathedral of St. Basil the Beatified, which is 
quite unlike any other edifice in the world. It 
is close to but on the outside of the Kremlin 
wall, and occupies a conspicuous spot in what is 



126 MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 

called the Kitai Gorod, or Chinese town. It was 
begun as early as 1535, by Ivan the Terrible, but 
he did not bury any of his six wives here — they 
rest with many other not happy women in the 
Ascension Convent. There are twenty domes 
on this curious temple, and each covers a chapel ; 
all of these chapels can be used for worship 
at once without interfering with each other. 
Here are shown the heavy chains worn for pen- 
ance by St. Basil, and the relics of another saint 
called " John the Idiot." This cathedral is an 
admirable example of the successful audacity 
with which genius can free itself from established 
rules and produce a monument as grand as it is 
unique. Only by pictures can any idea be ob- 
tained of the odd grouping of towers, the variety 
of domes, and pinnacles, and projections, and 
cornices, or the wealth of color without and of 
decoration within. 

Another place of still greater interest is the 
Tretiakoff gallery of modern Russian paintings. 
It was founded not many years ago by a public- 
spirited merchant, and is rapidly increasing in 
numbers and value. Nothing could better repre- 
sent this interesting but perplexing people ; this 
marked national character ; this mixture of the 
impressional and the phlegmatic, the dramatic 
and impassive, the superstitious and pessimis- 
tic, the pitilessly cruel and the promptly sym- 
pathetic. These pictures, brilliant in color and 



MOSCOW — THE HOLY CITY 127 

in execution, are often frightful in choice of sub- 
ject, — as in the heartrending representation of 
Ivan the Terrible after he has slain his son, — it 
reveals an irrepressible energy in the artist, who 
evidently became entirely possessed by his fearful 
subject. There is compensation, however, in the 
many sweet and tender pictures of love and joy. 
The portraits are full of spirit, the landscapes 
palpitate with the pulsing atmosphere of sudden 
summer or lie dormant beneath a shroud of snow. 
This new but precious collection is a treasure- 
house for the lover of art, and its development is 
proof that a magnificent future awaits the artist 
in this land, where a new civilization is springing 
from a soil enriched by the tears and sufferings 
of myriads whose aspirations have been crushed 
by the iron heel of despotism and whose genius 
has been stifled by the atmosphere of slavery. 

The temptation to analyze the present and to 
moralize over the past is almost irresistible in 
this strange unawakened country. To prophesy 
of the future, when it knows its strength, will not 
be difficult ; but its elements are all presented 
in extremes, and time and science and wise philan- 
thropy are needed to reconcile and reform its 
splendor and its misery, its brightness and its 
gloom, its piety and its crimes, its astounding 
cruelties and equally astounding self-abnegations. 



JAPAN 

After luxuriating in the soft air of India the 
sail northward is apt to produce a chill, and a 
keen wind may meet the traveler, even though 
the almanac records the date as the ninth of 
May. We entered the harbor of Nagasaki — 
four days from Hong Kong — in a pouring rain, 
which we are told is by no means an unusual 
occurrence. The shore before us looked pre- 
cisely like a Japanese folding-screen, — an odd 
little house in one spot, a clump of dark green 
trees in another, some rocks and a waterfall, 
and a great variety of levels apparently given up 
grudgingly by the overhanging hillsides. The 
drenching rain continued without intermission 
all day, and nothing could be more dreary than 
the outlook from the ship or the plight of the 
few passengers who ventured to land. My own 
impressions of the famous city were doomed to 
remain only such as have been gathered from the 
perusal of Pierre Loti's story of "Madame 
Chrysantheme." The storm was severe enough 
to detain us in the harbor all night, which was 
a stroke of good fortune, as it procured us the 
passage through the far-famed Inland Sea by 



JAPAN 129 

dayliglit. Many authorities declare this especial 
scenery to be the finest in the world. I have 
long since learned to distrust such comparisons, 
and will only say that the sail through the In- 
land Sea is beautiful enough to satisfy the most 
exacting admirer of natural beauty. Morning 
brought a brilliant sun which gave a golden touch 
to the high lights of the picture, and illuminated 
each detail with peculiar power. The air was 
keen and cold like a New England morning in 
May. We smiled as we recalled the prophecies 
made by the friends we left behind. In their 
opinion a murderous heat was to be our portion 
and our punishment for making our Exodus 
from the Land of Bondage in an easterly direc- 
tion when the rest of the traveling public chooses 
to go west. The wind of these northern seas 
penetrates to the marrow even when the sun may 
be brightly shining. We were glad to land at 
cheerful Kobe, and sit before a fire in our 
cosy room at the Hiogo Hotel. Kobe is gay 
and pretty, and its name means " The Gate of 
God." Its harbor is beautiful and well filled 
with ships. Our windows look down upon it 
and on the busy street between us and the water. 
Novelties in costumes and customs present them- 
selves every moment. A jinrikisha ride of half 
an hour takes you to a wonderfully pretty spot 
among high hills, where the Nunobiki Falls 
descend in a series of graceful cascades to a dell 



130 JAPAN 

where wild flowers and tangled vines and branch- 
ing shrubs make a bit of fairyland. The groves 
and cliffs seem to have arranged themselves with 
a view to scenic effect, wherein flowers blossom 
on one side and monkeys chatter on the other. 
Here also was our first experience of tea-house 
hospitality. A grave courtesy pervaded the es- 
tablishment so far as we were permitted to see, 
and no undue fascinations were visible on the 
surface. 

Kobe has the reputation of being the healthiest 
situation in Japan, and Nature herself has pro- 
vided excellent sanitary conditions. The Euro- 
pean part of the town is, of course, open and 
airy, the native town is business-like, populous, 
and bristling with shops. The custom of hang- 
ing out banners in all directions, adorned with 
all sorts of designs, combines, with the large out- 
side display of goods, to give a festal air to the 
streets. Here we had our first view of a Jap- 
anese temple. The quaint and numerous build- 
ings stand in a grove of cryptomenias and 
camphor-trees ; it is dedicated to the goddess 
Wakahirumi-no-Mikoto, — a sort of Japanese 
Minerva, who long ago taught the use of the 
loom and brought about the wearing of clothes. 

Religious ideas in Japan are so interwoven 
with secular customs that it is worth while to 
recapitulate a few points which are essential to 
the understanding of many peculiarities in the 



JAPAN 131 

temples and the festivals. " The Japanese have 
two religions, — Shinto and Buddhism, — the 
former indigenous, the latter imported from 
India. But the two are thoroughly interfused 
in practice, and the number of pure Shintoists 
and pure Buddhists must be extremely small. 
Every Japanese at his hirth is placed by his 
parents under the protection of some Shinto 
deity, whose foster-child he becomes, but at his 
death the funeral rites are conducted, with few 
exceptions, according to Buddhist ceremonial." 
Ancient Shinto had no precise religious or even 
moral ideas ; it exacted very little : so Bud- 
dhism stepped in with mysticism, elaborate ritual, 
and many priests ; accepted all the indigenous 
gods, as it had previously done those of India, 
and made them welcome among the already mul- 
titudinous host. Shinto is a combination of an- 
cestor-worship and nature-worship. It has gods 
and goddesses of the winds, of the ocean, of 
fire, food, pestilence, etc. The radiant Sun- 
goddess is at their head. New deities have often 
been added, even during the present reign. Of 
the Buddhists, the divisions and sub-sects are 
numerous. The temples consist of fifteen or 
seventeen divisions, each with its especial use 
and meaning. Of these, the Gate, the Belfry, 
the Hondo or main hall, the Rinzo or revolving 
library, the Cistern for washing the hands before 
worship, the Drum-tower, and the Stone Lan- 



132 JAPAN 

terns, are the most important. The temples are 
always situated in the midst of lovely groves and 
gardens, and generally upon high ground, and 
produce a very solemn effect, in spite of many 
features which are grotesque and trivial to a 
European mind. 

Osaka is only an hour by train from Kobe, 
and the road passes through a charming region 
under high cultivation, with the sea on one side 
and the mountains on the other. The pictur- 
esque scenery of Japan is, of course, a well-known 
part of its attractions, and it is also one of the 
first features to impress itself upon the traveler. 
I hardly know whether it is injured or improved 
by its haunting suggestion of having been seen 
before on screens and dinner-plates. The city 
of Osaka is situated on a pretty river, and spreads 
over a large territory in such a fashion as to re- 
quire eleven hundred bridges for its daily use. 
The result is a slight resemblance to Holland. 
The Castle is a grand specimen of the old-time 
fortifications when Japan was a nation of hardy 
and brilliant warriors, and when the feudal sys- 
tem was in full force. The mighty masonry of 
these ancient strongholds dwarfs the exploits of 
to-day, the blocks of stone being, many of them, 
forty feet long and ten feet thick. Altogether 
the fortress has a very serious and formidable 
effect. How much this may have been dimin- 
ished formerly by the appearance of the won- 



JAPAN 133 

derfuUy attired Japanese soldiers can only be 
conjectured after examination of these habili- 
ments in the museums, where they are now pre- 
served. 

We rested at an attractive-looking restaurant, 
prettily situated on the riverbank, but were 
obliged to console ourselves for the absence of 
any dish possible to a European palate by watch- 
ing the entertaining panorama of boats and 
bathers below the windows. In thus confront- 
ing the real native cookery and testing native 
dishes, the amount of original discrepancy in 
taste, as well as in acquired preferences, is once 
more forcibly demonstrated. It would seem 
easier to live on grass with the cows, or hay with 
horses, than to let these Japanese delicacies pass 
my lips. In order to obtain a satisfactory idea 
of this much-bewritten country, one must either 
accomplish an enormous amount of reading and 
study, and so form a solid foundation for per- 
sonal comprehension of its peculiarities, or con- 
tent one's self with being well entertained by the 
superficial experiences which meet the ordinarily 
acute observer. But even for this it is well to 
know a few of the Japanese peculiarities as a 
starting-point. History, tradition, fable^ and 
religion are interwoven with all one sees and 
hears, even on a pleasure trip. I will therefore 
mention a few items which I found it convenient 
to keep in mind while I was among this slant- 



134 JAPAN 

eyed people, strenuously endeavoring to keep my 
own eyes straight under influences which have 
drawn those of some other travelers as far from 
the horizontal as those of the natives themselves. 

Some of the traditions of Japan naturally fol- 
low general rules and are like those of other 
nations ; as the Greeks had their Palladium, and 
the Jews their Ark of the Covenant, the Japa- 
nese have their Imperial Insignia quite as pre- 
cious to them. These are : The Sword, The 
Mirror, and the Jewel, all handed down by the 
great Jimmo Tenno to his descendants, and they 
have passed in turn to each emperor who has 
reigned in the twenty-five hundred years since 
his death. So long as they remain in the pos- 
session of his successors, the empire of Japan is 
to endure. The whole position and policy of 
Japan rest on this fundamental idea. 

The language of Japan contains only three 
parts of speech, — the noun, the verb, and the 
adjective. Any word may be either of these, 
according to circumstances, which fact intro- 
duces an almost hopeless puzzle for foreigners. 
But it must be remembered that Japan could, 
no more than other nations, resist the foreign 
influences brought to bear so heavily upon her 
in these modern days. In spite of her tenacity 
in many of her old superstitions, new ideas have 
crept in, and the result presents many oppor- 
tunities for mistaken inferences and false con- 



JAPAN 135 

elusions which make superficial judgments 
worthless. 

The first European to set foot in Japan, than 
whom no one has probably done so with more 
satisfaction, was the shipwrecked Portuguese 
mariner, Mendez Pinto, in 1542. He no doubt 
believed the Japanese proverb, " A sea voyage 
is an inch of hell." Seven years after his en- 
forced landing he was followed by the famous 
missionary, St. Francis Xavier, who began the 
magnificent labors of the Jesuit Fathers, by 
which six hundred thousand natives were con- 
verted to the Christian faith. Some native 
writers claim that there were two million con- 
verts. 

The genuine history of Japan is mingled with 
a large amount of mythical tradition and hero- 
worship. It records a long list of famous war- 
riors and mighty monarchs ; but it has placed 
its faith most firmly upon Jimmo Tenno as its 
first emperor, and has deified him at thousands 
of shrines, although it cannot be proved that 
such a person ever really existed. All the same, 
the eleventh of February is the anniversary of 
his accession to the throne, and is celebrated 
much after the manner of our Fourth of July. 
The word Shinto (the name of the ancient faith) 
means the way of the gods, and as there were 
eight hundred thousand gods, it must have been 
a well-worn path, and mortals should find it easy 



136 JAPAN 

to follow. Superstitions are numerous, and 
symbols have multiplied to a confusing extent. 
The Mirror is held sacred because the Sun-god- 
dess gave one to her son as an image of her own 
soul. The prayer wands or " gohei " which are 
scattered in profusion on the roads to the temples, 
and which consist of a slender wand, from which 
hang small strips of paper representing prayers, 
as well as the sacred bells of mighty size struck 
by swinging timbers, are all efforts to open com- 
munication between the human mind and the 
powers above and beyond itself. 

As an example of the tender treatment a 
modern imagination can give to debasing ob- 
servances, I quote the following lines : — 

THE PATH OF PRAYEH. 
Among" the g-narled pines of Old Japan 

That shade a hill where patient crickets sing — 
I chanced upon a terraced path which ran 

Upward beneath a mystic covering. 

A hundred sacred gates the pathway keep 

Each shaped of two straight beams and one across, 

With rigid angles mounting up the steep, 

Their dull red hue bepatched with ancient moss. 

At either side, thick in the grassless mould. 
Two fluttering lines of white still rise beyond ; 

Small written strips of paper that unfold 
As banners pendant from a mimic wand. 

And while I wondered, suddenly a name 

Flashed to me. and I knew the Path of Prayer, 



JAPAN 137 

Where Kwannon, Queen of Mercy, nightly came 
To read the sad petitions planted there — 

I mused upon that gentle race anew, 

With love and pity aching in my breast ; 

And then I knelt, when evening shadows grew, 
To place my small petition with the rest. 

Mary M'Neil Scott, 

The bells and the gongs are intended to rouse 
the gods to pay attention to the demands of 
their worshipers. The ceremonies are as nu- 
merous as they are peculiar, and every part of 
the temple, and every portion of worship, has its 
own especial value and meaning. When you 
are told that the Sun-goddess was born from the 
left eye of Izanagi, the Creator of Japan, you 
can understand that she was kinswoman to Min- 
erva, and beautiful enough to desire a mirror in 
which to behold her own charms. But, although 
extremely elaborate in the ornamental obser- 
vances of worship, old Japan was very simple 
and limited in its fundamental articles of faith ; 
there was no precise code of morality, and 
no belief in immortality. Obedience to the 
Mikado, as the representative of supreme au- 
thority, was the only demand. There were no 
words in the language for such trifles as be- 
nevolence, or justice, or truth, or propriety. 
" Chastity was of no account, and marriage but 
a flimsy bar.'' The effect of Buddhism, which 
was introduced A. D. 571, great as it was, re- 



138 JAPAN 

mained long overshadowed by the superstitious 
worship paid to the Mikado, which even at the 
present day prevails, in the more remote por- 
tions of the empire, almost unimpaired. The 
word Mikado means The Honorable Gate, and 
belongs to the same category as The Sublime 
Porte, but it has a deeper meaning, for it re- 
presents the effort of a reverent loyalty to avoid 
any direct mention of the then reigning emperor, 
whom it is sacrilege to speak of by his own per- 
sonal name. The story of the mysterious and 
unapproachable grandeur of the Mikados, and 
their long seclusion under the tyranny of the 
Shoguns, followed by their restoration to power, 
in 1868, reads like a romance. 

Between Nagasaki and Tokio lies the best 
part of Japan, that is, as the ordinary traveler 
cares for it. There are, of course, other regions 
rich in folk-lore, and objects of research for the 
philosopher and the scientist. The tract of 
country referred to extends about six hundred 
miles east and west, and two hundred north and 
south, occupying a space between the thirty- 
third and the thirty-sixth parallels of latitude, 
corresponding to the latitude of South Carolina, 
on this continent. All the important cities, nine 
in number, are within this limit. 

We made our first acquaintance with the 
Great Buddha at an ancient and rather shabby 
temple at Kioto. The image is fifty-eight feet 



JAPAN 139 

high, and is (as always) in a sitting posture. 
He proved a poor fraud, however, as lie is only 
a frontispiece of brasswork, while his back is a 
mere openwork scaffolding of timber. We went 
also to a temple where the goddess Kwannon, 
queen of mercy, is enshrined. She was a grand 
creature, standing in the twilight of an inner 
sanctuary, while in the outer room there were 
assembled brazen images in multitudes. In- 
deed, it is said that they number in all 33,333, 
large and small, some of them very small. There 
are at least one thousand, which are five feet 
or more in height ; these I counted. The smaller 
ones often form a portion of the general orna- 
mentation and symbolism of the chief idols. 
These long rows of beings in brass and copper, 
standing in grand array, immovable and silent, 
but clothed with the attributes of power and 
majesty, are not without dignity and imposing 
presence. 

The temple grounds are always extensive, 
solemn, and beautiful. They invite to medita- 
tion and prayer. The very atmosphere seems 
laden with the millions of petitions that have 
been uttered in these sacred precincts for count- 
less seasons, and these trees and flowers are 
consecrated by their long religious seclusion, 
which has protected them from the groveling 
superstition which entered long since to the 
interior of the temples, and still degrades the 



140 JAPAN 

shrines. Beautiful distant views often accom- 
pany the temples, for they always seek the 
heights, and lead the thoughts away from the 
petty present, and give freedom to the imagin- 
ation, which may have already been purified and 
elevated by fasting and prayer. In the gardens 
of one temple small birds are kept in cages, and 
for a penny one has the privilege of setting free 
a little prisoner, and seeing him fly away into 
apparent liberty. They do it, however, as if 
they were used to it, and are said to be easily 
captured and resold. The original idea is a 
very pretty one, and worth more than many 
pennies is the delight of the little children over 
the bird as he soars upward into the branches of 
the big trees. Monkeys are often tethered to 
stands on the avenue of the temple, in charge of 
women, who sell green stuff with which travel- 
ers feed the chattering creatures. If they eat 
all the things spread out on the counters they 
must often be very sick monkeys. Some of 
them are ill-looking fellows, and one of them 
whose face was daubed with scarlet paint (per- 
haps as a danger-signal), preferred my finger to 
a fresh bean-pod, and bit me violently. His 
grip was like a vise, and he required severe 
cuffing from his keeper to make him release his 
hold. 

Dai Nippon means Great Japan, and the Jap- 
anese believe that their country is not only the 



JAPAN 14i 

greatest on the globe, but was the first land cre- 
ated, and all things outside of it are naturally 
inferior to it. Its history is, however, much more 
closely connected with that of other countries than 
its exclusiveness in the past would indicate. It is 
only one day's sail in a junk from Corea. At 
the extreme north the strait can be crossed in a 
canoe, and there have been times when low tides 
and high winds have bared the ocean floor so 
that one could walk from the mainland to the 
shore of Japan. There are twenty active vol- 
canoes in the country, and hundreds now extinct. 
Fuji looks down on thirteen provinces, and is 
" clothed with a garment of lava on a throne of 
granite," and wears an imperial and well-fitting 
mantle of perpetual snow. 

Of the climate I quote the best description I 
have seen : " The rapid variations of tempera- 
ture, heavy and continuous rains, succeeded by 
scorching heats and the glare of an almost 
tropical sun, are accompanied and tempered by 
strong and constant winds." Murray also sums 
the subject up thus : " The Japanese summer 
and early autumn are hot and wet ; the late 
autumn and early winter cool, dry, and delight- 
ful ; February and March disagreeable, with 
occasional snow and dirty weather; the late 
spring rainy and windy, with beautiful days in- 
termixed." 

The name Japan is said to be a corruption of 



142 JAPAN 

a Chinese term, meaning "East of China." 
Twelve hundred of the ancient Mikados lived 
a hundred years apiece. The symbols of Shin- 
toism have never lost their sanctity, and it is 
still the religion of the state. The people held 
no ideas as to a First Cause, but believed there 
was an original substance like an egg in its 
yolk. The effect of Buddhism was to incline 
the Mikados to exchange their earthly power 
for a heavenly, by embracing the religious life 
as " cloistered emperors " after a few years. 
They soon became mere puppets. The reign- 
ing monarch could not be seen by ordinary 
mortals ; his feet were never allowed to touch 
the ground. The military power grew in op- 
position to the priesthood until its leaders, under 
the title of Shoguns, completely overshadowed 
the Mikados and usurped the entire government. 

The Shoguns, having reduced the Mikados to 
silence, became tyrannous and overbearing. 
Not content with belittling them in this life, 
they treated them with contempt in death. 
While the Tombs of the Shoguns were sump- 
tuous and extravagant to the highest degree, 
and their palaces luxurious, the burial-places of 
the emperors were " little better than earthen 
mounds, and their lives were passed in gloomy 
secluded idleness, and so-called religious obser- 
vances." 

Ever since its introduction Buddhism has 



JAPAN 143 

been a powerful factor in the life of Japan. 
By the census of 1875 there were in the 
country 148,807 Buddhist priests, and 58,862 
nuns, or '' religieuses," of different grades. 
With Christianity came firearms and many 
changes, and for some time converts were numer- 
ous. The statues of Buddha, . altered a little 
with a chisel, served for images of Christ, and 
the Buddhist saints made good apostles. In 
1583 five nobles were sent on an embassy to 
the Pope, but not much came of it. Mean- 
time, superstitions did not much diminish, and 
when actual persecution came the converts were 
crushed out. 

In the evening it is amusing to wander 
through the crowded streets of a Japanese town 
where theatres and jugglers' booths and shops 
and chatter of tongues and clatter of wooden 
clogs mingle their attractions ; and where the 
Japanese themselves look so small and doll-like 
that the scene is like a puppet-show, and Euro- 
peans look gigantic in comparison. We are all 
the time coming upon indications of the length 
of time during which this plucky little nation 
has been doing the same things without experi- 
encing any painful cravings for new things. 
The art of lacquering, for instance, was invented 
about the eighth century, and having reached 
its highest development in the thirteenth, has 
undergone no material change since. Crema- 



144 JAPAN 

tion was introduced in 700 A. D., and there 
are countless instances of the clinging to old 
thoughts and old ways. 

The almost total absence of draught animals 
gives an odd effect to outdoor life. The cruel 
whip-lash does not offend the ear, and a great 
merit in the 'rikisha is that the rate of speed is 
matter of agreement between the driver and the 
propelling force. No one would dream of 
taking a whip into the jaunty little vehicle. 
The men are athletic and good natured, ready 
for a race, and took me over the ground as if 
I were only a feather's weight, and appeared to 
regard my extra fee as a gift of the gods. A 
good runner will go twenty miles with no ap- 
parent fatigue ; a cup of saki is like a peck of 
oats for a horse; light hearted and lightly 
clothed they spring airily along, and really seem 
to have discovered their legitimate and only 
possible vocation. On my return from the 
hardest mountain excursion that we made in 
a " rik," my two men, who had pulled me over 
nine miles of precipitous climbing, and then 
rattled me back over the same extent of preci- 
pitous plunging, were very urgent for me to add 
to the work of the day by going at once to a 
temple two miles in another direction. There 
are thirty thousand jinrikishas in Yokohama 
and one hundred thousand in Tokio. 

An agreeable excursion from Kioto is to the 



JAPAN 145 

Lake Biwa, seven miles distant, over a smooth 
road permitting the easy trot or swinging gait 
affected by the fashionable runners. We stopped 
at the temple of Mei'deta, which stands on a 
hill ascended by many stone steps. The temple 
is shorn of its ancient splendors, but the exten- 
sive prospect from the summit is worth climb- 
ing for. The distant mountain peaks stand 
high and fair, and beneath us was the fertile 
valley in which Lake Biwa lies. We returned 
on a tiny steamboat much like ours at home, 
but the village at which we landed was quite 
unlike anything in America. In the rural re- 
gions of Japan even at a short distance from 
the Treaty Ports, the foreign element disappears 
entirely, and opportunities for studying the native 
customs are in easy reach. 

Visits to the various pottery manufactories 
are interesting, and strangers are treated with 
great courtesy. The establishments are crowded 
with wares and the paths through them are in- 
tricate, inconvenient, and dangerous. Stepping 
over rubbish and avoiding contact with fragile 
materials and the necessary polite examination 
of thousands of jugs and millions of cups and 
saucers and pitchers and platters (in acknow- 
ledgment of the courtesy extended) bring on 
absolute vertigo. 

It is needless to say that where the number is 
so great the proportion of fine specimens must 



146 JAPAN 

be small. I came away with the impression 
that nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every 
thousand ought to be smashed, but that the thou- 
sandth was a delight to the eyes, a satisfaction to 
the soul, and worth the cost of all the broken 
nine hundred and ninety-nine. If one could 
double the risks of fragility to the general mass, 
and endow the exquisite pieces with immortality, 
it would be a good thing for art. The introduc- 
tion of European ideas, undigested, is responsi- 
ble for much of the degeneration in Japanese 
work. Some of the pretty marks of the Jap- 
anese are seen in the crests, for instance, the 
three-leaved mallow, the Tokugawa crest and the 
two crossed horsebits of the Satsuma. 

One of the sights which all foreigners are 
expected to patronize is a performance by the 
dancing girls or geishas, so we went, one wild 
and stormy night, a distance of two miles in our 
" riks " to a tea house of the better sort. By 
previous arrangement nine geishas had been 
engaged from the best school in Kioto, and they 
appeared in all their bravery of brocaded gowns, 
well-oiled hair, golden combs, and gorgeous fans. 
They were soft, smooth little animals, and went 
slowly hither and thither over a limited space, 
or turned around on themselves with the stealthy 
movements of kittens. They attitudinized, they 
waved their tiny brown hands, they bent their 
presumably brown knees, they flirted their fans, 



JAPAN 147 

they made their solemn little courtesies, they 
giggled their small mirthless laughter, they did 
everything except dance. Every motion had its 
meaning and its grace ; each performance was a 
tiny drama, interesting no doubt to those who 
understood the plot, but dull and monotonous to 
us. Two of the girls sat on the floor and played 
on the samisen, or Japanese guitar, and sang in 
thin, high voices. In the intervals of the per- 
formance they all smoked tiny pipes, and held a 
cackling chatter together. We sat on the floor 
till our every bone ached and our spirits sank 
to the lowest ebb. It seemed all very modest 
and proper and entirely different from the 
sensual and coarse contortions of the Egyptian 
and Indian dances, but whether it was intrinsic- 
ally purer I do not know. Its monotony was 
tiresome, the music was exasperating, and as 
increasing pains assailed my cramped muscles, I 
grew to hate the boot-button eyes, greasy hair, 
and tallow skins of the harmless little dolls who 
were simply following their vocation and earn- 
ing their living as they had been taught to do. 
They seemed as absolutely devoid of anything 
resembling a process of thought as so many 
delicate French toys wound up for a performance 
by machinery. Some travelers discover a ro- 
mance wrapped in each embroidered robe — but 
I failed to find anything but mild, unquestioning 
obedience to long-established habit, carried out 



148 JAPAN 

in a gentle and rather pathetic fashion. If they 
did not enjoy it, they got some satisfaction from 
our money and our applause. It was best 
worth while to see how skillfully they avoided 
breaking their limbs, or falling on their faces, 
as they twisted about in their long and narrow 
robes, heavily stiffened and loaded at the bottom, 
and often assuming the shape of a corkscrew. 
But they wobbled about safely in their white- 
stockinged, or rather their white-mittened feet. 
The house footwear for men and women is more 
like an old-fashioned mitten than anything else ; 
the thumb of the mitten fitting the great toe 
and the whole affair buttoning behind. When 
the clog for outside wear or the straw sandal is 
put on, the toe is inserted in the strap of the 
clog, and the click-clack-clatter begins. The 
ride home from the geisha performance through 
the beating storm and the darkness, the silence 
only broken by the wailing wind which com- 
bined with the swaying of the " rik," made the 
finish of the evening the most exciting. 

One morning when magnificent masses of 
threatening clouds hung over the mountains 
but brought no rain, we went to the Mikado's 
palace, a spacious, scrupulously clean but dreary- 
looking place. The floor mats are beautifully 
fine, the screen paintings are justly celebrated. 
The Nijo palace, where we went next, was far 
finer. Its coffered ceilings, its lacquered beams, 



JAPAN 149 

with bolts and clamps and braces of exqui- 
site brasswork, are most extraordinary and the 
wall-paintings or panels surpass all we have 
hitherto seen, while the gateways are marvels 
in carvings and brass. But of the palaces, or 
rather the abandoned royal residences, which 
are open to inspection, it is not easy to get any 
satisfactory idea. Domestic life is so utterly 
different from ours that even an imperial dwell- 
ing lacks nearly everything that we regard as 
essential to comfort. If, for instance, we re- 
moved from the finest house in New York all 
the tables, chairs, sofas, cabinets, books, paint- 
ings, rugs, and bric-a-brac and curtains — we 
should find the mansion desolate, no matter how 
fine a straw matting covered the floors. They do 
not care for what we call comfort, and seem 
never to have evolved comfortable chairs or 
beds. The intense cleanliness seems to add to 
the heart-breaking loneliness. The ceilings are 
rich in lacquer and gold, the metal-work abun- 
dant and exquisite, the wall-paintings often 
grand, the mattings soft as satin. 

The perfection of Japanese gardening is too 
well known to need description, but its charm is 
manifest in the sweet country drives, as well 
as in the more elaborate gardens. It is also 
noticeable that delicate plants thrive here in a 
climate which strongly resembles that of New 
England. Palms, bananas, and other tropical 



160 JAPAN 

plants flourish, and azaleas blossom by the mil- 
lion. We went five miles into the country to a 
dear old-fashioned garden at Katseira, where were 
ancient ponds with water-plants, rustic hedges 
hoary with age, and high, moss-grown stepping- 
stones. The science of horticulture is made 
into a fine art and large folios are necessary to 
explain the meaning of the many combinations 
in bouquets, modified or heightened by the kind 
of vase in which they are placed, and indeed by 
all the attendant circumstances. Every nosegay 
is eloquent of traditional lore, the stems are as 
important as the blossoms, the angle of inclina- 
tion varies the significance, and so on through a 
sublimated interpretation which has developed 
a literature and created an abstruse science, 
delightful to an oriental intellect and a matter 
of educational importance. In fact, everything 
in Japan appears to mean something additional 
to its first signification ; symbols are incorpo- 
rated into daily life, from the wayside flower to 
the dragon on the banner, or the grotesque 
emblems floating on the house-top or the scarlet 
lanterns hanging in long rows ; each has some 
meaning hidden from a stranger's comprehen- 
sion. If the huge painted fish which flopped 
from many a roof is, as we were told, an ad- 
vertisement that a son had been born in that 
house within the year, it is certain that an ex- 
tremely one-sided increase of the population had 



JAPAN • 151 

taken place that season. It is true, however, that 
the carp is also used as an emblem of persever- 
ance and ambition on account of its tremendous 
leaps when surmounting the cascades on its 
annual up-river journey. These adornments 
make the streets very gay and at festival times 
they are overwhelming in number and brilliancy. 
The distances over which we travel in our 
" riks " are really wonderful : we roll past miles 
of shops, and monotonous house-fronts, and 
through hundreds of groups of people utterly 
indistinguishable from each other. Leaving 
them behind we enter on sweet country roads, 
which lead to lovely gardens or to secluded 
and solemn temple grounds. On one of these 
excursions we stopped at the Great Crematory, 
and witnessed a Japanese funeral. The build- 
ing is high up in the hills ; the long avenue of 
approach is bordered with stately Cryptomerias ; 
the arrangements within are simple but perfect. 
The funeral procession marched slowly up the 
hill, preceded by four men bearing each an 
enormous bouquet of flowers on standards eight 
or ten feet high. The body was inclosed in a 
bright yellow lacquered box, square in shape 
and suspended from a long bar or beam of black 
lacquer with richly gilded ends, the whole affair 
hung with tassels and little brass bells. This 
box serving as hearse, looked like a festal palan- 
quin. It contained the coffin, which resembled 



152 • JAPAN 

an ordinary packing-box. As only the high 
nobility (so we are told) are buried at full 
length, ordinary mortals are forced into a sitting 
posture and jammed into a small compass. 
There were two priests of different grades and 
wearing different colored costumes ; the service 
was performed in a small open building, prayers 
were recited, the friends of the deceased passed 
slowly by the altar, on which joss-sticks were 
burning, and each one added his tiny taper to 
them, with a low bow. At last the man who 
acted as undertaker opened the yellow box and 
took out the coffin which was painted white. He 
carried it, unaided, and with little apparent 
effort, into the main building and opening one 
of the iron doors, slid in the box and closed the 
door. The ovens are so arranged that the fire is 
lighted (by a relative of the deceased) at a door 
in the rear of the oven on a different corridor, 
which runs around the outside of the ovens, so 
that the coffin is not visible. Three bodies were 
cremated while we were there. The firemen 
were as solemnly cheerful as the grave-diggers 
in Hamlet. Tea houses line the road near the 
furnaces, and tea farms are numerous in the 
neighborhood. Many Japanese are said to die of 
ossification of the coats of the stomach, caused, 
it is supposed, by excessive tea-drinking. The 
bodies are reduced to ashes in an hour and a 
half, then placed in a small box and given to a 



JAPAN 153 

relative. There are three grades of ovens for 
the different classes of society. No criticism 
could well be made upon the performance — it is 
dignified, business-like, hygienic, and thorough. 
Elaborate funeral services are often held in the 
temples before the corpse starts on this last 
journey. 

Of the temples it is impossible to give a 
satisfactory description. The buildings are nu- 
merous and of uses almost incomprehensible 
to a foreigner. Their architecture is familiar 
through pictures ; the ornamentation is profuse, 
often splendid, but confused, incongruous, and 
misplaced to Western taste ; but in the best 
instances, the gaudiness has been mellowed and 
toned down by age and dust to a tawny hue not 
unattractive. The dull gold, the black and scar- 
let lacquer, the rich faded hangings, all combine 
to produce an admirable effect. The groves 
and gardens, the cliffs and dells, the streamlets 
below and the lofty trees above, the ancient 
stonework of stairways and balustrades and 
lanterns, the serenity of an entirely finished and 
established symbolism, make each temple pro- 
duce the same general effect, varied only in sub- 
ordinate details. The method of caring for the 
Buddhist Scriptures reminds one of the Jewish 
Books of the Law, but in some cases, notably at 
Nikko, the books are kept in a revolving cup- 
board, very heavy and difficult to move — but if 



154 JAPAN 

you do succeed in turning it around you receive 
into your mind thereby all the wisdom written 
in those books. 

Nikko is a very sacred place, as well as very 
picturesque. We saw there a wonderful church 
festival with an interminable procession of fan- 
tastically dressed people, caparisoned horses, 
richly robed priests, lacquered shrines, and re- 
ligious emblems. Long ago these things repre- 
sented the power of the priesthood, — - now they 
are grotesque and flimsy images of dead beliefs. 
It rained in torrents (as it is apt to do) during 
the whole ceremony, and the spectators hustled 
about in vain to avoid wetting. Awnings and 
umbrellas were of little use, but I was snugly 
tucked into my 'rikisha, with only an oc- 
casional trickle through the top. The pro- 
ceedings went on as if nothing in the weather 
would interfere, but it was a half-drowned world 
we looked upon. The temples at Nikko are 
exceptionally splendid, and an added sanctity is 
derived from the shrines of leyasu and lemitsu, 
which crown the heights above. They are 
reached only by climbing hundreds of stone 
steps of stately proportions, and protected by a 
massive balustrade of hewn granite. At the 
various landings where one pauses to take 
breath there are numerous small buildings dedi- 
cated to temple uses. The shrines themselves 
are in a solemn seclusion in the shadow of huge 
trees, and guarded by stout iron railings. 



JAPAN 153 

At Toklo the so-called Shiba temples are 
elaborately sumptuous, and splendor culmi- 
nates in the gorgeous tombs of the Shoguns 
within the sacred inclosures, on which fabulous 
sums have been expended. Here were cele- 
brated the grandest of all festivals when the 
reigning Shogun came to worship the spirits of 
his ancestors. At Nagoya the temples are fine, 
and the great gateway of the Higashi Hong- 
wang is magnificent in size and superb in deco- 
ration. At Nagoya we had experience of a 
native hotel, though it claimed to have devel- 
oped under foreign influences. What it may 
have been before one does not like to think : I 
only note down that we left Nagoya with joy, 
but without breakfast, and took train for Yoko- 
hama. The only other occupants of the car 
were a Japanese gentleman of seemingly high 
rank and his family, five ladies, one friend 
(apparently), and an interpreter or secretary. 
Several military officers escorted him to the sta- 
tion, and treated him with great deference. He 
was a repulsive looking person, but the women 
were more like ladies than any others we have 
seen. They smiled benevolently upon us, and 
pressed us to eat some of their disgustingly flat 
sweetmeats. We returned the compliment by 
giving them a glass of beer and a cigarette 
apiece. The interpreter knelt every time he 
addressed the governor, as he was called, and in 



156 JAPAN 

accordance with directions asked us each our 
age, and told us their own. An immense amount 
of smiling and bowing took place when they bade 
us good-bye. It had rained most of the day, and 
as night came a deluge descended. When we 
reached the hotel we were glad to sit by a good 
fire. 

At Kamakura, where the waves of the sea 
make music on the gently sloping shore, there is 
to be seen the grandest monument in all Japan 
— so much grander and more impressive than 
any other that one wonders how it was brought 
into existence in a land of small artistic concep- 
tions rather than of majestic creations. The 
great Buddha or Daibutsu was formerly en- 
shrined in a temple which has been twice 
destroyed by fire. He now sits uncovered in the 
open air, and, indeed, the blue dome of heaven 
seems the fittest canopy for his most royal head. 
He is represented as Amida, or Boundless 
Light, and the thought of an artist has rarely 
found more complete expression. In the serene 
face is the peace of one who has achieved a vic- 
tory, has attained rest by grand performance ; 
it combines the majesty of the conqueror with 
the sweetness of a soul that has known suffering. 
It would seem that no one could fail to draw 
inspiration and strength from frequent contem- 
plation of this masterpiece of religious art, which 
has nothing of the idol about it, but is the em- 



JAPAN 157 

bodiment of a grand thought. It ranks in the 
memory with the majesty of the Egyptian 
Sphinx, the beauty of the Taj Mahal, and the 
solemnity of a Gothic cathedral. This mighty 
creature, instinct with immortality, has been sit- 
ting in these gardens for six hundred years 
absorbing the worship of many generations, till 
it seems able to give forth a benediction to all 
who come to it. The figure is of bronze, fifty 
feet high, with other measurements that faintly 
express the grandeur of the enormous whole. 
The circumference of the base is about a hun- 
dred feet, the breadth of the head from ear to 
ear is seventeen feet, length of the eyelid three 
feet, and so on. The forehead bears the boss of 
wisdom in silver, weighing thirty pounds ; so 
Buddha sits cross-legged in eternal repose ; he 
measures thirty-five feet from knee to knee, and 
lifts up two thumbs each three feet in diameter. 
But it is sacrilege to measure with a foot-rule 
such a magnificent creature as this, or to count 
by years the centuries that have passed away 
since first he sat there in the sight of men. In 
the interior of the statue is a temple shrine, and 
many pilgrims flock there, and priests minister 
in his honor. 

An interesting ceremony took place on the 
30th of May as the observance of our Decora- 
tion Day was honored in this far land. The 
weather was showery and chilly, when at ten 



158 JAPAN 

o'clock two o£ the officers from the flagship 
Lancaster came in a carriage and escorted us 
to the beautiful cemetery on the Bluff, where 
services were held over American graves. A 
procession of American soldiers and sailors 
marched up the hill, the band playing a dirge. 
At the gate we left the carriage and marched 
with them through the lovely flower-decked 
paths. The Rev. E. S. Booth offered a prayer ; 
the band played the " Sanctus " of Gounod. All 
the men present stood with uncovered Jieads 
during the prayer in spite of the falling rain. 
So also my husband took off his overcoat and 
stood bareheaded while delivering a memorial 
address, which was listened to by a most atten- 
tive audience of soldiers, sailors, and strangers 
of both sexes from many lands. The procession 
passed on, pausing at the graves profusely deco- 
rated with flowers, and each laid another flower 
on the monuments. The whole ceremony was 
impressive. The view from the Bluff is beautiful. 
Of the peculiarities of a Japanese dinner I 
can only speak from hearsay, but the account 
brought back by a gentleman of our party was 
piquant and interesting. He had sat on the 
floor four hours and a half, and came home 
loaded with boxes of queer sweetmeats, having 
found it impossible to bring other more cum- 
brous evidences of their hospitable treatment, 
such as a whole baked fish, etc. 



JAPAN 159 

Yokohama is a very gay place for the foreign 
residents, who develop every sort of luxury of 
living, and exhaust ingenuity in devising social 
amusements. Some of them are even so generous 
as to provide a piquant dish of scandal for their 
famishing friends. The odor of one of especial 
flavor was still in the air during our visit, and 
the turf was still fresh over the grave of a young 
man who had partially expiated his folly with 
his life. Society in these mixed settlements, 
remote from restraining home influences, with 
freedom in all directions, and youth, and health, 
and money-getting, and luxurious exemption 
from domestic cares, seems to bring on temp- 
tations and opportunities unknown in staid com- 
munities, and an unfortunate giddiness overtakes 
the gay of both sexes. 

When a day at this season is fine, it is so 
entirely perfect that it seems ungrateful to 
remember the discomfort of the day before, or 
to prophesy the storm of to-morrow. It was on 
one of these days of paradise that we arrived 
at famous Nikko. We had been seven hours 
going one hundred miles, but the scenery was 
enchanting, and the cars commodious. From 
the station to the hotel is one of the prettiest 
bits of scenery I ever saw, and the road runs by 
the bank of Dai-gawa, or big river. Across this 
bounding, rushing, tumultuous stream there 
stands the Sacred Bridge ; of its origin the f ol- 



160 JAPAN 

lowing account is given. When the Saint 
Shode Shonin made his pilgrimage under di- 
vine inspiration to the snowy summits above 
Nikko, his course was barred by the dashing 
waters of the Dai-gawa and its huge rocks. His 
prayers, however, brought an angel to his aid, 
who, standing on the other bank, " flung across 
the river two green and blue snakes, who twisted 
themselves into a bridge brilliant as a rainbow." 
The Red Bridge, now spanning the river, com- 
memorates this miracle, and only the feet of the 
emperor are allowed to walk over it. 

Nikko is a sacred place,''rich in temples and 
festivals. One of the grandest of the structures 
is within walking' distance of the hotel. The 
road is bordered with wonderful stately trees of 
absolutely gigantic stature. Nothing could be 
more impressive than the dignified and solemn 
aspect of the temple grounds, in spite of the 
chattering monkeys, and the trivial booths, and 
the tawdry decorations. 

Another day of days took us to Lake Chu- 
zenji, eight or nine miles distant, and high up 
among the mountains. We were a large party, 
some on horseback, some in " riks," some in 
palanquins, and some on foot. I had two ex- 
traordinary young athletes with my " rik," who 
made no more of the vehicle and its contents 
than if I had been the celebrated " fly on the 
wheel." The sharper the ascent the louder they 



JAPAN 161 

laughed ; the deeper the mud the longer their 
leaps; they twisted the carriage between and 
over the big rocks, which the recent rains had 
dislodged. The scene was brilliant in sunshine, 
and the hillsides were enlivened with vast 
stretches of azalea blossoms and luxuriant 
climbing vines which draped the precipices like 
a wondrously graceful garment. The lake is 
extensive and beautiful, and lies beneath a lofty 
mountain bearing the same name. We crossed 
over from the village, and landed at an ancient 
shrine with its worm-eaten Torii, commemo- 
rating the time-honored custom of propitiating 
the demon-dragon of the lake by casting into 
the water an annual tribute of two bags of rice. 
Demons are an important and busy part of 
Japan's population, and their portrait-images as 
set up in the temple gateways are of the most 
grotesquely horrible sort. Some strange crea- 
tions of a superstitious imagination are painted 
a brilliant scarlet, others are pea-green, others 
cobalt blue, black, or white, and all with terrific 
scowls on their distorted faces. They are sup- 
posed to guard the sacred precincts from the 
outside mass of evil spirits, and are spotted all 
over with small paper balls, thoroughly masti- 
cated by the true believer till sufficiently adhe- 
sive to stick permanently to their glossy surfaces. 
These balls contain the petitions of the people, 
who thus implore their protection or deprecate 
their wrath. 



162 JAPAN 

On a cloudy Sunday afternoon we went with 
a guide to the temples of leyasu and lemitsu, 
and through the exquisitely beautiful avenues 
and grounds by which they are approached. 
The temple gates are guarded by four demons 
brilliantly colored, one a bright scarlet, one a 
pale blue, one pea-green, and the fourth a sub- 
dued white. Huge gods and threatening grif- 
fins, grotesque lions and distorted dogs alternate 
with beautifully sculptured birds and flowers of 
a tender grace. The carved peonies and chry- 
santhemums are skillfully adapted to the rich 
dark background of shining lacquer and heavy 
gold. The mausoleums are at the top of long 
flights of moss-grown stone steps. We ascended 
about two hundred to reach the sacred seclusion 
in which lemitsu is enshrined, but had not the 
strength to add the other climbing necessary to 
see that of leyasu. The staircases are divided 
into stations, and at each landing we found 
groups of the temple buildings, for a temple in 
Japan is really a small village. The massive 
stonework of these stairways, the countless lofty 
trees, the array of ponderous stone lanterns, the 
extraordinary architecture, the gorgeous roofs, 
the vast extent of territory, the reverend anti- 
quity, and the impressive stillness combine to 
form a scene never to be forgotten, but difficult 
to portray. 

At Myanoshita there is very grand scenery 



JAPAN 163 

and an excellent hotel, much frequented by- 
foreigners. There is no limit to the variety 
and beauty of the views on the way thither. 
The first part of the journey is by steam-cars, 
then by tram-cars, and finally as the road be- 
comes very steep, the friendly " rik " comes to 
the aid of the traveler. From this pretty 
mountain village there are many charming ex- 
cursions, one of them over the Otometogee pass, 
from which some glorious views of Fujiyama 
are obtained. This world-renowned mountain 
well deserves its reputation, and however skep- 
tical one may be at first as to its absolutely 
unique beauty, one ends by acknowledging its 
supreme charm. Both for grace of outline and 
impressive dignity of demeanor it outrivals all 
other single mountains, even though they have 
greater height and greater mass. It is beauti- 
ful when seen across the deep dark valley, 
which separates it from the Otometogee pass; 
it is very grand as it rises abruptly from the 
plain of Gotemba ; it is picturesque and bewitch- 
ing when bathed in the hues of sunset, and fair 
as a new-born creation when irradiated with the 
morning sunbeams. It is majestic as one ap- 
proaches it, and dreamlike as one retreats from 
it and distance drapes it with soft obscurity. 
It greets the fortunate visitor who arrives in 
sunny weather with a smile, and it gives him 
god-speed as he sails away. But it is a wayward 



164 JAPAN 

creature and often hides its face for many days 
together ; indeed we heard of one party of tour- 
ists who waited six weeks in vain for an un- 
clouded view of its beauty. One instinctively 
bestows personality on this mountain, and like 
the moon and the ship it becomes distinctively 
feminine* To see her in her royal robes, to 
watch the sweep of her magnificent train as it 
falls in folds into the valleys, to wait till the 
pure ermine of her snowy mantle is tinged with 
the rose of early dawn, or soft white clouds 
caress her brow ; or when as daylight fades she 
assumes a severer aspect and envelops herself 
in obscuring twilight shadows, - — these are ex- 
periences to be remembered for a lifetime. 

The attractions of Tokio, the present capital, 
are endless. The Imperial Hotel is so com- 
fortable that there is no need to hurry in study- 
ing the big city both externally for its Japanese 
peculiarities and internally for such social op- 
portunities as are allowed the foreigner. I 
had the inestimable privilege of a view of Fuji 
from my window. I can only mention some of 
the places that reward a traveler's search. The 
Imperial residence, seen of course only on the 
outside, the wonderful moats, the Tombs of the 
Shoguns, and the extensive parks are all interest- 
ing. Tokio is commercially inclined, and one 
may spend money (under advice of an expert) 
with great satisfaction. The moated palace 



JAPAN 165 

speaks of the feudal past, but the busy and alert 
people are prophesying great things for the 
future, when the nation shall be completely 
modernized and the historic individuality of 
Japan has become a thing of the past. 

The Tomb of the second Shogun is the most 
gorgeous and elaborate of them all, and its won- 
derful lacquer is said to be the finest in the world. 
The Shiba Park in which it stands is filled with 
marvelous shrines and chapels. Ueno Park 
contains a museum which promises an endless 
store of relics for the historian. The famous 
"cherry blossom festival" is at its best in 
Tokio, and in the fine gardens outside the walls 
the various flower shows succeed each other in 
regular order. There are small shops where 
you may spend hundreds on a tiny box or an 
ivory statuette, and huge bazaars where you may 
accumulate much bulk of purchase for a small 
amount of cash. You can discover the rarest 
curios of the oldest date, or pay three or four 
thousand dollars for a folding-screen of to-day. 
These things are but a faint suggestion of gay 
smiling crowded Tokio, the capital of Japan. 

One of the beautiful flower shows we saw was 
that of the Iris blossoms. Thousands of these 
tall and stately lilies reared their queenly heads 
and reflected the sunbeams in tints as various 
and as interwoven as those in the robes of the 
dancing girls we saw the night before. The air 



166 JAPAN 

was pure, and the fair daylight illumined a wide 
field of flowers watered by tiny canals intersect- 
ing the ground in all directions. It seemed 
incredible that the Iris could assume such ma- 
jesty of bearing, and don such royal robes. 
Each blossom was like a dainty banner on its 
delicate stem and seemed a portion of some 
fairy procession. They bore also very poetical 
names, as the Silver Moonbeam, the Dying Lion, 
the Smile of Peace, etc. A hundred school- 
children were taking holiday in the garden, and 
it was amusing to see the boys walking gravely 
about with an air of connoisseurship selecting 
and purchasing a flower. Imagine one of our 
town schools turned into such a garden where 
the mud in the ditches would make such good 
material for a battle and there was water for a 
hundred squirt-guns. 

We went by train to Kamakura and then by 
" riks " to the thousand year old Icho-tree, to 
the temple of Hachiman, and above all, to the 
Great Buddha who sits in eternal calm, and 
fitly represents the thought of Boundless Light 
and Eternal Peace. The pretty bays and islands, 
the quiet country roads, the cultivated fields, 
the picturesque seaside hotel, made a pretty 
framing for the picture of the day. 

Of course we went, as all travelers do, to the 
famous suburb of Tokio, — the Yoshiwara, 
where dwell the thousands of poor girls who 



JAPAN 167 

rank as frail beauties or soiled doves in the 
language of polite society. We took a carriage 
at eight one evening with an authorized valet-de- 
place, and drove about six miles through the 
usual interminable streets enlivened by colored 
lanterns or dark in impenetrable gloom. On 
reaching the gates of the Yoshiwara proper (or 
rather improper) we were obliged to leave the 
carriage, everything here being under strict sur- 
veillance. The place is really a prison, under 
police supervision ; its inmates cannot escape ; 
its laws are imperative, and an almost solemn 
stillness pervades the place. We entered a 
street bordered by tall houses, very different 
from the ordinary dwellings of the people. Each 
story was lighted up with colored lanterns. The 
lower stories were open to the street and could 
be approached quite near by the spectator, but 
between us and the occupants there were iron 
bars like those in the cages of wild animals. The 
animals on exhibition here, however, are not 
wild, but would probably escape if not guarded. 
Each room is therefore really a cage in which 
sit the young women, — on rent as it were, — 
richly dressed, elaborately painted, pomatumed, 
and coiffed ; apparently utterly indifferent to the 
gaping crowd ; with immovable features, ex- 
pressing only the calmness of thoroughly blase 
conditions. They sat upon their heels in a 
fashion impossible to any but the Japanese, and 



168 JAPAN 

looked like a row of dolls in a toy-shop. Some 
smiled very faintly at us, or shook their slim 
brown fingers with an odd but perhaps signifi- 
cant gesture. On the floor before them was the 
ever-present atom of a tea-table, the small jar of 
hot ashes, and the tiny silver-mounted pipe. 
At intervals one of the girls was noiselessly 
summoned and mysteriously withdrawn, but the 
rest paid no attention. They sat as demurely 
as a Puritan Sunday school, but the gorgeous 
toilettes were not at all like that. We were 
told that there were one hundred and twenty of 
these houses, and many thousands of licensed 
courtesans of different ranks and prices. Those 
of the more aristocratic grades live upstairs and 
are not open to public inspection. Now and 
then a squeaky music was heard in the distance, 
in these upper apartments, and one could not 
help hoping that some bits of gayety occasion- 
ally accompanied the sacrifice. There certainly 
was no sign of cheerfulness below, as far as we 
could see, and it was impossible to extract any 
emotion even of serious indignation from the 
contemplation of these gayly dressed puppets. 
They seemed protected from mental suffering by 
their very number, and to have no occasion for 
especial shame, since they were simply obeying 
the laws as they know them, and to be quite 
without any of the ideas which we are apt to 
regard as integral portions of a woman's nature. 



JAPAN 169 

They might as well be kittens or monkeys, so 
irresponsible are th^y for their condition or 
their conduct. They are caught — for that is 
the process — at about the age of ten ; they are 
groomed and fed carefully ; they are educated 
expressly for their profession; taught how to 
heighten their charms by art ; and instructed 
in all available accomplishments. Their vanity 
and competition with their companions supply 
perhaps some stimulus and excitement, and 
meanwhile they are as safely imprisoned as 
any criminals in the realm. 

With all the many pages I have written on 
this wonderful country, I seem to have said 
nothing that can give an adequate idea of Japan. 
When I lay down my pen there rises before me 
a variety of scenes with which I might perhaps 
have succeeded better than with those I have 
chosen. There are so many odd things and odd 
ways all about, so many contrary impressions 
possible. The old people toddle like children, 
the children look like old men and women. One 
writer says, " The main business of the nation was 
play " — before the foreigners came. Perhaps 
the dumb animals are the only serious people, — 
they look sad enough, and one is glad there are 
not more of them. Even the kittens are born 
without a tail to play with. Symbolic and fan- 
tastic emblems and appurtenances appear every- 
where. The temple gates are hung with rough 



170 JAPAN 

and weather-worn ropes of straw, the remnants 
of an old tradition of their power to keep out 
evil spirits. The lotus-flower serves as decora- 
tion, and also as the emblem of eternal rest ; it 
is also the throne of the Great Buddha. The 
priest sees in it the suggestion of the creative 
power of the universe. " The lotus springs from 
the mud " is the consolatory proverb with which 
an Asiatic answers those who tell him that the 
human heart is desperately corrupt and has no 
power to cleanse itself. Japanese philosophy 
presents many odd problems to a Western mind. 
As a pleasure excursion Japan is highly enter- 
taining, but the most careless sightseer is 
tempted to philosophize over the problems that 
swarm like bees about one's eyes and ears. One 
would like to persuade the market-men that 
neither vegetables nor children can be washed 
clean in the gutter, and the people generally 
that by sitting on their heels for centuries they 
have dwarfed their stature and brought on 
frightful diseases. But Japan is Japan and 
has shown a capacity for imitation and Euro- 
peanizing herself that leads us to believe that her 
future may be trusted in the same hands that 
made her heroic and prosperous in the past. 



CENTRAL SPAIN 

In looking back over the experiences of for- 
eign travel, it is often delightful to recall and 
re-live some of the minor incidents which ac- 
quire interest from the comparatively unusual 
and unhackneyed conditions under which they 
occurred. Thus, amid the gorgeous glories of a 
journey through Spain, there come to memory 
episodes of quiet days and rural scenes and 
quaint stopping-places, or of wild and lonely 
mountain regions still barbaric with ancient 
strongholds, now lying silent, which make strik- 
ing contrast with the vivid pictures of the ro- 
mantic Alhambra, the gay streets of brilliant 
Seville, the pageants of metropolitan Madrid, or 
the prosperous bustle of Barcelona. 

It was our good fortune on arriving at Gi- 
braltar, a little after the rush of the traveling 
season, to secure the services of a courier who 
stood at the head of his profession, well known 
to American tourists, who deserved his sobriquet 
of "King of the Couriers." A few words of 
description of this remarkable man may be par- 
doned. His personal beauty was of a high 
order, his figure bore out the promise of his 



172 CENTEAL SPAIN 

face, and his six feet two inches of height were 
balanced by a fine muscular development. Able 
to converse in a dozen different languages, asso- 
ciated with travelers whose cultivated manners he 
had copied, his natural intelligence heightened 
by his occupation, he was a model guide for wan- 
derers in strange lands. We were sure of good 
treatment by the outside world while we were pre- 
ceded by his majestic figure and heralded by his 
gold-headed cane, — the only article of luggage 
he condescended to carry. It was only under 
such guidance that it was wise to venture into 
regions where our native language was quite un- 
known, and where the unrestrained inquisitive- 
ness of even a good-natured crowd would be too 
formidable. 

So at Granada we abandoned the railways for 
a brief dash across country to see what Central 
Spain would show us of fertility and beauty. 
We had greatly enjoyed Granada, seeing it, not 
as most tourists do, in the chill of spring or the 
shadows of autumn, but under the splendid leaf- 
age of trees and blossoming shrubs, and accom- 
panied by the music of sparkling fountains and 
flowing rills. Only at such a season can be fully 
understood the significance of Moorish palace 
architecture, the chief features of which are its 
open courts and galleries, its gardens, its foun- 
tains, and its ingenious devices for fresh air and 
summer enjoyments. For us the lordly elms of 



CENTRAL SPAIN 173 

Wellington's planting gave delightful shade, the 
sound of rippling waters was grateful to the ear, 
the smiles of flowers blooming on all sides cheered 
the eye, the warmth and sunshine gladdened the 
heart, and these accessories explained the delight 
of the kings of old in the palaces where they for- 
got the noise of cities, the toils of war, and the 
turmoil of faction. 

We had visited the various shrines of Granada, 
had dutifully descended through the venerable 
trap-door beneath the monuments of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, and stood beside the quaint coffins 
which inclose their mortal remains. It seems as 
if some portion of their royal spirits must have 
taken up its abode in the life-like effigies above 
their resting-place, which have knelt before the 
altar for four hundred years, wrapt in contempla- 
tion of heavenly things, and undisturbed by the 
wars and rumors of wars which have been for- 
ever going on in the world outside. 

We had visited a very different locality in the 
cave-dwellings of the gipsies, who have inhabited 
them for centuries, and who still prefer them to 
the most comfortable cottages. Their ownership 
descends from father to son, and we were told 
that the government exacts no taxes. The caves 
are ingeniously developed, the stall of the donkey 
is next the parlor, and the family bedrooms re- 
tire into the interior. The floors are paved with 
small stones, the rooms are filled with old- 



174 CENTRAL SPAIN 

fashioned articles, many of no possible value, 
but treasured by their owners, — pottery, brass 
lamps, cooking utensils, and so on. Order and 
neatness prevailed. The women were extremely 
polite, some even cordial ; in fact, so simple and 
unaffected, that we concluded that civilization 
often suffered from more degrading influences 
of poverty than were involved in dwelling in 
caves, even with a donkey as co-tenant. 

On our last morning in Granada we were 
waked in season to take our coffee at five o'clock. 
We then climbed into a very dilapidated vehicle 
and descended the long hill to the diligence sta- 
tion at breakneck speed. We had secured the 
coupe, or, as it is called here, the berlina, but 
when we saw the superannuated cart which serves 
to carry all the passengers who seek this unfre- 
quented road, it was eloquent in suggestions that 
we were entering on paths untrodden of the 
fashionable tourist. We climbed into the funny 
little space allotted to us, made amiable disposi- 
tion of elbows and knees, let down the rattling 
windows, and prepared to enjoy our new experi- 
ence. For a while the way was lighted by a 
waning moon, but ere^long she retired as the 
heralds of the dawn flamed forth from the oppo- 
site quarter. The air was delicious ; the horses 
went along fairly ; Michael's notes by the way 
were piquant; the scenery was beautiful and 
varied. We had by turns the wild picturesque- 



CENTRAL SPAIN 175 

ness of a narrow mountain gorge and the mild 
cheerfulness of country scenes. We passed villas 
and vineyards, convents and churches, hamlets 
and harvest fields. We crossed small rivers 
over timeworn bridges, and went through long 
stretches of open country, where the land seemed 
to lie fallow of all serious husbandry, and to 
have given itself over to a riotous demonstration 
of wild poppies which flaunted their scarlet ban- 
ners in the sun and seemed to boast that their 
color came from many a famous battlefield 
once incarnadined with the blood of warriors. 
" Spanish history has been described as seven 
centuries of fighting and three thousand battles," 
and the scent of carnage has not yet quite left 
the air. 

We had a team of six animals, part of them 
horses and part mules. To speak with absolute 
correctness, we had eight; for the driver and 
the postilion were certainly not above their four- 
footed companions in any qualities apparent to 
the superficial observer. My sympathy goes out 
more freely to the long-suffering, duty-fulfilling 
brutes that labor unrewarded and ill-treated, 
than to the vulgar, dirty, begging, cringing hu- 
mans, who thank you for a kick if you accom- 
pany it with a shilling. The mules especially 
excite respect, for they are the only inhabitants 
of this region who appear to carry on any 
reasoning processes ; and they have thereby at- 



176 CENTRAL SPAIN 

tained an almost perfect philosophy in the endur- 
ance of evils from which they cannot escape. 
Horses and dogs have become irritable and 
vicious under their long ill-treatment ; they often 
snap and kick ; the cats are timorous but crafty 
and spiteful, having sharpened their wits as well 
as their claws ; the sheep, the goats, and the pigs 
scurry away from the cruel humans ; the pigs 
especially have lengthened their legs and light- 
ened their bodies for speed till the phrase, "as 
fat as a pig," has no significance. But the 
donkey hardens his hide and braces his nerves 
by musing on the miseries of life as he knows 
it; he accepts his many blows as a matter of 
course, and rarely makes much attempt at re- 
bellion ; he does not even share the evident 
curiosity of the horse as to where the next blow 
will strike, but staggers on under burdens and 
blows, superior in courage and patience to the 
depraved men who mount his lame back in 
couples. Occasionally only does he utter his 
strange, unearthly cry, which seems to put into 
sound the pent-up protest of centuries. 

We drove over this charming road for more 
than fifty miles, changing horses several times, 
but clinging to our dilapidated coach and lunch- 
ing within it upon food we had brought with us, 
not daring to confront the horrors of unmitigated 
Spanish cooking. We reached the lordly city 
of Jaen, which was blazing in a noonday sun- 



CENTRAL SPAIN 177 

shine, whose heat was truly of the hottest. Jaen 
is a very stylish-looking city, of the old-fashioned 
sort. It is in a mountainous region, and its 
castle stands above it like a sentinel on guard, 
and commands the gorge of the mountain ap- 
proach. It possesses a cathedral of majestic pro- 
portions and sumptuous architecture in Grseco- 
Roman style, and with two splendid towers. It 
reared its magnificent mass in the quivering 
white heat like some ethereal structure in the 
upper sphere. About three o'clock we walked 
across the open and entirely unshaded plaza, and 
the sun glared down upon us with an apparently 
malicious intention, ready to shrivel us to a 
coal. I use the word malicious advisedly, for a 
peculiarly malignant threat resides in Spanish 
sunshine, meaning mischief for all heads less 
impervious than a Spaniard's or a donkey's. 
But one is seldom obliged to remain in it, and 
the " bad hour " is so brief that it counts for 
little against the beauty and luxury of the rest 
of the summer day. Our apartments are always 
delightfully cool, and the shaded streets and the 
lovely open courts of the hotels are enchanting. 
This great naked and open square permits the 
cathedral to be seen in perfection. It is in the 
same style as those of Malaga and Granada, but 
grander and simpler ; and as we entered the cool 
shade of its lofty arches and stood beneath its 
mighty dome, the contrast from the outside glare 



178 CENTRAL SPAIN 

heightened the effect of the massive piers, the 
soaring ceiling, and the altar, with its sculptures 
and its gold. This sumptuous architecture pro- 
duces a very grandiose effect, and though it lacks 
the peculiarly religious atmosphere and spiritual 
suggestiveness which we attach to Gothic cathe- 
drals, it cannot fail to excite awe and admiration 
when exhibited on the grand scale of the Cathe- 
dral of Jaen. It gains also in majesty from its 
isolated position, and perhaps from a sort of 
unexpectedness in this simple country neighbor- 
hood. It was formerly a Moorish mosque, but 
the original building was destroyed during the 
grand overturnings of 1492, and the cathedral 
was commenced in 1632. Its most valued relic 
is the Holy Face, which is one of the many which 
claim to be the original imprinted by our Saviour 
on the napkin of Saint Veronica. 

The inn at which we stopped was precisely 
what a foreigner imagines of a Spanish hostelry. 
We had glimpses of its domestic life which ap- 
peared quite unaffected by the presence of fault- 
finding strangers. Its undisturbed filth, its total 
indifference to customers, its grand disdain of 
questioning glances, were all characteristic of 
old Spain. It was all like a chapter out of Don 
Quixote. I doubt if we could have lived through 
a night there or have secured an eatable meal, 
but fortunately we had been spared the necessity 
and left the melancholy abode after a stop of 



CENTRAL SPAIN 179 

two hours. And yet the place had a sort of queer 
charm, for richness of color sometimes covers 
accumulated filth, — and the people were so in 
harmony with the filth. Besides, they had the 
air of certainty that these same surroundings 
were the finest in the world, and that our expres- 
sion of disgust was really one of admiration. 
Our arrival brought out the usual crowd of vil- 
lage starers unabashed by our frowns, uncheered 
by our forced smiles, unmindful of everything 
save their own dull but audacious impertinence. 
Many of the group would have furnished an 
artist with studies for a bandit, or a coquette, — 
a love-scene or a duel, — a romance or a police 
item. The national characteristics are, as we 
know, strongly marked and capable of powerful 
artistic treatment ; but although I used ray eyes 
diligently and lost none of my opportunities, I 
saw little of the reputed beauty of the ordinary 
Spanish women, and not any of the much- 
talked of grand manner of the men. The femi- 
nine type is too limited and monotonous for any 
but the rarer specimens to attract admiration. 
One gets weary of black eyes and tumbled black 
hair and oily complexions. Even in Seville, 
with its world-renowned cigar-factory, where sev- 
eral thousand women are employed, and have 
called forth the hyperbolical enthusiasm of many 
susceptible travelers, who find a Carmen's dan- 
gerous glances under every mantilla, we found 



180 CENTRAL SPAIN 

no greater percentage of handsome faces than 
we see on Broadway, or In Washington when the 
departments pour forth their crowds. It is need- 
less to add that the grade of intelligence and 
neatness bears no possible relation to our own. 

On our way by a branch railway to Menjibar 
Junction we crossed a fine bridge over the 
Guadalquivir; at the station we obtained a 
composite meal, neither breakfast, dinner, nor 
supper, but resembling each in turn. Soon after 
we were in a comfortable compartment on the 
night express for Madrid, reaching there at nine 
in the morning. The intervening country is dull 
and uninteresting. 



THE MONASTERY OF MONTSEREAT 

After viewing the modern improvements and 
Chicago-like activity of the great city of Barce- 
lona, where the commerce of the present crowds 
out of sight and out of thought the glories and 
the gloom of a long and tragic past, we bent our 
way with eagerness towards the almost un- 
changed regions where is still to be found one 
of the most remarkable religious structures in 
Spain, — the famous monastery of Montserrat. 

We rose at half past four, and after an inter- 
minable drive through the deserted streets, ar- 
rived at the station, and at six were on the train 
for Monistrol. In accordance with Spanish 
methods we spent two hours and a half in going 
thirty-two miles, and when we reached Monistrol 
it required more than half an hour of yelling, 
pushing, scolding, and frantic gesticulating to 
get the diligences started, although they ap- 
peared to be quite ready when we arrived. 
They were six in number, drawn by six mules 
each, and carrying from eighteen to twenty-four 
passengers, for this pilgrimage has become under 
modern influences a favorite picnic excursion for 
the neighborhood. We had fine seats on the 



182 THE MONASTERY OF MONTSERRAT 

front of our carriage, and though the slow 
ascent is necessarily tedious, the magnificent 
views made us indifferent to small discomforts. 
A party of young people on our coach were in 
such rampant spirits and on such noisy terms 
with the occupants of the other carriages, that 
our ears and our patience were sorely tried. 

The ascent is by a zig-zag road admirable in 
construction, but requiring nine miles in length 
to reach a height of four thousand feet above 
the sea, and of course much less above our 
starting-point. The slopes are well graded, but 
the mules had a hard and steady pull all the 
way. There are deep gorges with perpendicular 
sides and precipices with only the narrowest of 
mule-paths winding dizzily on their edges. 

" The rent which divides this tremendous wall 
of rock is said to have been made at the moment 
of the crucifixion. From the plain the mountain 
skeleton rises nobly from its wooded base, and 
the convent with its cypresses and gardens is 
distinctly visible. Nothing can surpass the 
beauty of the scenery." 

And indeed the mountain of Montserrat is 
one of the most extraordinary spots on the sur- 
face of the earth. It looks as if it had been the 
scene of some Titanic conflict, if not the actor 
in some awful crime. The earth has been tor- 
tured, the rocks have been convulsed, the moun- 
tain mass has been torn and agonized. And 



THE MONASTERY OF MONTSERRAT 183 

now that time has assuaged its memories and 
calmed its pangs, it asserts the general benefi- 
cence of nature by presenting the most contra- 
dictory aspects at its different angles. The 
extreme of desolation and the gloom of dark 
abysses stand side by side with smiling fertility 
and delicate outlines of cultivation, and yet, as a 
whole, the mountain seems like the expression 
of a single thought, entirely in harmony with 
its surroundings. Its almost inaccessible peaks ; 
its mournful but fantastic cliffs ; its sudden 
oases of luxuriant vegetation ; the grotesque 
forms of its mighty rocks, now a semblance of 
insurmountable battlements and now a carica- 
ture of human or animal forms ; the huge chasms 
yawning beneath, and the tender grace of waving 
trees above, — by turns attract the attention and 
delight the taste. The endless masses of rocks 
are tossed about in wild confusion, but are welded 
together into vast ramparts and castellated sum- 
mits. Here, where one would suppose only an 
eagle would have found a home, the religious 
enthusiasts of a thousand years ago built and 
dwelt in these enormous stone structures hardly 
less colossal than the cliffs themselves. Here is 
a convent nine stories in height, a church rich in 
carven doorways, and mullioned windows, and 
sculptured saints, and all as elaborate as if the 
artisan had labored within a stone's throw of his 
native village. Think of the frightful toil of 



184 THE MONASTERY OF MONTSERRAT 

climbing these tremendous hills with heavy loads 
before any roadway had been made. 

The monastery owes its foundation to the 
miraculous image of the Virgin, the handiwork 
of St. Luke, which was brought to Barcelona 
in A. D. 30 by St. Peter. She was hidden in 
the hill for more than a hundred years, during 
the Moorish occupation, but in 880 the good 
bishop of Vique, guided by a sweet smell, dis- 
covered her, and released her from captivity. 
He intended to remove her to the civilized 
regions below, but on reaching a certain spot 
she obstinately refused to go farther. So they 
built a chapel over her where she stopped, and 
worshiped her there for one hundred and sixty 
years. Then the grand constructions of a nun- 
nery and a church wooed her to her present 
shrine, which was consecrated by Philip II. in 
1599. 

This convent gave place to a Benedictine 
monastery which contained nine hundred monks 
in its palmy days. It was suppressed in 1835, 
and only a score of fathers are allowed to remain 
in charge of the buildings. Not less than one 
hundred thousand pilgrims visit the place 
yearly, not all, however, for religious purposes. 
A short time ago the one thousandth anniversary 
of its foundation was celebrated here. 

It is well worth while to study a spot where 
nature, art, and religion have combined to rouse 



THE MONASTERY OF MONTSEKRAT 185 

the Imagination and to awaken sentiment. The 
monks who peopled this remote abode conducted 
their worship with all the appliances of the 
sumptuous ritual of the Romish church even 
when their own cells were bare, and their own 
fare was of the hardest. Here many a soul lay- 
prostrate in penitence through the long night 
hours, and rose with sublime courage, going 
forth to endure martyrdom. Here Ignatius 
Loyola kept his vigil before the virgin, dedicat- 
ing himself to her service, and laying his blood- 
stained sword upon her altar. Here were taught 
humility and self-abasement, but however hum- 
ble may have been the attitude of this commu- 
nity towards their God and towards each other, 
it is certain that it maintained a very proud and 
stately position in the eyes of the outside world. 
The labor expended upon this spot is almost 
incredible. The soil is kept in place only by 
countless stone walls of admirable masonry ; 
vineyards rise above vineyards, and fields cling 
to the mountain sides. Stone parapets surround 
the courtyards and guard the roads of approach. 
The gardens and orchards have walls worthy of 
a city street. There are many and various 
buildings, and in spite of the ruined condition 
of some, it is not difficult to see how imposing 
the ancient edifices must have been. The altar 
of the Virgin is still flower-bedecked by pious 
hands, and the work of restoring the time-be- 



186 THE MONASTERY OF MONTSERRAT 

dimmed and war-stained splendors of her shrine 
is now going on. One would think a place so 
remote and so sacred would have been safe from 
the ravages of war, but the French army climbed 
the heights during the Peninsular war, and blew 
up many of the buildings, and massacred the 
poor monks. At that time many hermits dwelt 
in the upper recesses of the cliffs, and it is said 
that the French soldiers ferreted them out of 
their holes and shot them down like wild 
animals. 

In recalling the tradition of the original rend- 
ing of the mountain, one wonders why the chasm 
did not open afresh and swallow the unholy host 
that stormed its heights and ruined its sweet 
peace. 

Mr. Hare has told in glowing words the won- 
drous story of the beauty and the interest of 
Montserrat, and Goethe has appropriated its 
weirdness and its terrors in the grand scenery 
of the Walpurgis Night ; yet, powerful as both 
descriptions are, they fail when one is on the 
spot, and words seem trifling and useless in any 
attempt to make those at a distance comprehend 
the subtle charm and weird fascination of the 
place. 

It had taken us three hours to climb the hill ; 
we descended in one, and our rapid motion and 
a slight sense of danger from it added impres- 
siveness to the ghastly precipices and wild 



THE MONASTERY OF MONTSERRAT 187 

ravines which yawned deep and dark on both 
sides. The views took on new effects and new 
colors in the afternoon light ; the hamlets 
through which we passed were emerging from 
their prolonged siesta, and the clatter of our 
wheels was the only sound we heard save when 
a brawling stream leaped and foamed beneath 
the bridges which we crossed. At Monistrol we 
took the train again, and at nightfall were once 
more at Barcelona, and in the living world. 



THE PYRENEES 

We came out from Spain in the most delight- 
ful fashion, and the last three days of travel 
there were full of the charm that belongs to lei- 
surely journeying by post. We left Barcelona 
at six in the morning on the 26th of July. The 
fresh sweet morning air was a panacea for sev- 
eral recent ills which had assailed us and small 
discomforts disappeared in the glory of a new 
heaven and a new earth. With due regard to 
the custom of the country we devoted four hours 
to the railway journey of sixty miles, which 
brought us to the end of the line at RipoU. 
Here a breakfast was provided, and we secured 
the most desirable seats in the clumsy diligence. 
The best seats are simply those that command 
the best view, and are in the " imperiale " to 
which we climbed with no little effort. The 
" imperiale " is a hooded bench above the driver, 
and, beside the high climb on the slippery old 
ladder, one encounters many projecting irons, 
loose straps, much bunchy baggage, and other 
accumulations, and at length creeps under the 
leathern cover which the alternations of heavy 
rains and hot suns have converted into an in- 



THE PYRENEES 189 

genious instrument of torture for the arms and 
legs of the unfortunate passenger. 

We were bent and cramped in the strangest 
manner ; in fact, I was packed away so thoroughly 
that it seemed impossible for me to extricate my- 
self without breaking my back, so I remained 
on my perch the whole nine hours of the journey. 
But the exceptional grandeur of this mountain 
route absorbs sensations and creates conditions 
of mind which dominate those of the body. 
Mountain is piled on mountain, bleak hill-tops 
surmount fertile valleys, lofty crags of wildest 
form rear their heads above rushing streams, 
cascades leap down deep ravines, and forests 
clothe the lower hills. We drove through vil- 
lages tumbling to pieces with age, and where the 
march of improvement, if it passed that way, 
would come to a sudden stop. We skirted under 
ruined walls and extinct fortresses, passed by 
rich fields of ripening grain, and flocks of sheep 
that represented wealth for some one. We shiv- 
ered on the edge of precipices where we could 
look down a thousand feet, or clung to the sides 
of rough cliffs that rose another thousand feet 
above, while the road wound like a lengthening 
ribbon in and out of the narrow pathway. The 
distant views were of unrivaled sublimity, for 
the Pyrenees are built on an unusually ponder- 
ous and massive plan, occasionally varied by 
heaven-scaling sharp peaks white with snow. 



190 THE PYRENEES 

The air was pure as that of Eden, clear as 
crystal, and of a temperature entirely delight- 
ful. My enjoyment would have been complete 
even when both feet were asleep, but for the 
cruel and incessant beating of the poor mules 
that drew us over the rough road. Each new 
driver excelled his predecessor in brutality, and 
no remonstrance had any effect. I do not know 
what sort of a being a Spanish muleteer can 
be — he certainly is not human in any civilized 
acceptation of the term. As each new specimen 
mounted the box, he seized the heavy whip, and, 
bawling out his various expletives, of which the 
keenest in irony was the ever recurring '' por 
Carita," he lashed and belabored the quivering 
animals till I grew sick and faint at the sight. 
I was more jaded and fevered and miserable 
from this long strain on my nerves than by my 
cramped position and the length of the journey. 
For six hours we toiled up the steep ascents, 
winding by zig-zags to a height of over six 
thousand feet, and then for two hours descended 
with great rapidity. There followed a season 
of hard driving through the valley, where the 
road was much damaged by recent floods and 
where the whip-lash and the oaths fell faster and 
heavier. 

Great rocks had fallen from the hills, piles of 
sand had gathered in the path, rivulets had 
washed deep cuts across the road, and in many 



THE PYRENEES 191 

places large tracts of cultivated soil had been 
undermined and slipped from their hold on the 
hillside, falling into some hollow below. It is 
the work of but a few hours to transform a 
pretty little farm into a ghastly rent in the 
mountain, with nakedness and ruin frowning on 
all sides. This only makes one wonder the more 
that such precarious sites are selected for cultiva- 
tion. These little patches of grain or pasture 
look at a distance like garments hung at random 
on the peaks, and appear inaccessible to any- 
body who cannot walk like a fly on the ceiling. 

At one time we got stuck in a particularly 
deep hole and I thought the animals would fall 
dead, so murderous was the assault on them by 
the drivers. At another spot where a sudden 
turn in the road occurred, we came upon a large 
wagon team, and our driver, with more zeal than 
wisdom, attempted to force a passage, dashing 
pell-mell into the string of advancing mules. 
The confusion was awful, and the view of it from 
my high seat was very exciting as the crazy old 
diligence jerked and swayed with contradictory 
spasms. To add to the danger, one of the mad- 
dened mules attacked one of our horses on his 
own account, biting him and striking at him with 
his fore feet, like a wild beast. It seemed for 
a while impossible to disentangle the snarl of 
animals and men, but in the same unaccountable 
way in which such things happen they sometimes 



192 THE PYRENEES 

unhappen, and amid yells that would have done 
credit to the Apache Indians the mule was pulled 
off, the confusion subsided, the carriages were 
extricated and drawn their respective ways. 
But the naughty mule, who had doubtless re- 
garded this as the opportunity of his life for ex- 
pressing his sentiments, was savagely beaten. 
Hqw these people can be in constant and equal 
companionship with the dumb animals, with 
whom they labor and often suffer together and 
on whom they are so dependent, and not develop 
sympathy or kindness is a wonder even to those 
who do not hold the highest opinion of human 
nature. We punish cruelly the beast that resents 
ill-treatment, — we applaud the man who slays 
the fellow-being who insults him. 

Another long hill brought us to the quaint lit- 
tle walled city bearing the almost unpronounce- 
able name Puigcerda, with a strong accent on 
the last syllable. It was dark save for a young 
slip of a moon that coquetted behind the clouds . 
the jaded horses could hardly drag themselves 
along, even the drivers were weary with whipping, 
and the clumsy old vehicle creaked and groaned 
and wobbled over the stony way. The streets 
after we were within the town were worse than 
the gullied road. I closed the avenues to all my 
senses and accepted the swaying motion as we 
were evidently traversing all the pigsties of the 
town. At last we reached the summit of this 



THE PYRENEES 193 

peak whicli it would seem should secure the 
town from communication with the rest of the 
world. We rattled across the inevitable plaza 
of every Spanish town, an ill-paved dirty square, 
and descended from our seat to find ourselves 
besieged by a small mob of staring, giggling, in- 
truding men, women, children, and dogs. They 
seemed half -paralyzed with wonder at the appear- 
ance of passengers by the daily diligence and we 
were the only arrivals. The inn proved excel- 
lent and we were promptly supplied with a com- 
fortable room. Though it was about ten o'clock 
an elaborate dinner of seven courses, admirably 
cooked, was prepared, of which it is hardly neces- 
sary to state I was utterly unable to partake. 
So our opinion of the possibilities of Spanish 
cooking underwent revision, but with the proviso 
that the nearness to the French frontier had 
something to do with it. The comfortable bed 
wooed me from the contemplation of the vast 
view just visible in the half-light from my bal- 
cony, and I sought the rest that only a tired 
traveler appreciates. 

A heavenly morning rose on our last day in 
Spain. Such a magnificent prospect spread its 
charms before our eyes that the fatigues and an- 
noyances of yesterday rolled away like a morn- 
ing mist. To increase our satisfaction, Michael 
came in to say that he had obtained a new and 
commodious basket-carriage in which we were 



194 THE PYRENEES 

to complete our journey to Ax, our next stop- 
ping-place. By ten o'clock we were seated in 
the roomy carriage, which was low and broad 
and light, and took us and all our luggage with 
ease. A good-looking young coachman and three 
stout horses made comfort possible and I am 
glad to record that at last we had a merciful 
driver. 

We crossed the frontier about two miles from 
Puigcerda but there were no signs of life at the 
custom-house, and we passed on undisturbed and 
undisturbing. The whole village was sound 
asleep in the summer sunshine. The scenery 
was more than enchanting, for there are very 
interesting peculiarities in the Pyrenean moun- 
tains ; the high air was invigorating and we were 
at peace with all the world. Higher and higher 
climbed the road, and frequent were our pauses 
to rest and to admire, till we reached the hamlet 
of Porta, romantically situated in a tiny valley 
nestling among the hills and adorned with some 
fine castellated ruins. Michael had promised 
that here we should partake of the finest break- 
fast we had ever eaten, and as it was already 
high noon and we had had only early cofEee we 
listened with interest to his description of " trout 
fresh from the river," etc. We drove in at a 
gateway and drew up in a spacious but silent 
barn-yard neatly swept; as no one appeared 
we followed Michael as he plunged into the 



THE PYRENEES 195 

darkness of a deep archway leading into a car- 
riage-house and general place of storage. Thence 
into a still darker passage, which proved to be 
a staircase leading to the inhabited upper quar- 
ters. The first room was a large, quaintly fur- 
nished kitchen, reminding one of the famous 
Dutch interior paintings. It wore an unmis- 
takable air of accustomed and expectant hos- 
pitality, and we were welcomed as if we had 
responded to a formal invitation, by two polite 
little Frenchwomen, neatly dressed and with an 
air of alert interest and ready service quite in 
contrast to the manners we had recently left be- 
hind us in poor, proud, benighted Spain. 

We felt at once that we could depend on their 
cheerful assurance that a good breakfast should 
be ready tout de suite. Where the materials 
were obtained in this isolated farm-house we 
could not guess, but in fifteen minutes we were 
served with a delicate omelet, a ham crispy and 
sparkling, a stew of fresh meat, trout from the 
brook, potatoes sautes a merveille, excellent 
bread, wine, cheese, and coffee. It was like the 
rubbing of Aladdin's lamp. We knew that we 
had entered the land of culinary miracles and 
accepted our good fortune with almost precipi- 
tate haste. It is absolutely certain that what 
one has to eat or to go without eating on long 
journeys will affect the physical, mental, and 
moral condition of even those who are most 



196 THE PYRENEES 

easily satisfied at home and who generally regard 
dinner as one of the minor emotional experiences 
under normal circumstances. The pleasure trav- 
eler is more dependent than he likes to be on a 
good dinner and a good bed. 

All that day's journey in the comfortable car- 
riage and its leisurely progress, enlivened by 
Michael's running commentary, historical, geo- 
graphical, and romantic ; our frequent stops at 
points of especial beauty ; our small excursions 
from the highway for lovely bits of scenery 
which Michael alone knows of ; the magnificence 
and variety of natural display, make of this 
whole day one unmingled delight in the memory. 
In the light of its splendor it is well to omit the 
colder and more definite researches of history and 
the actual names of places, and only to say that 
we saw every sort of landscape, and experienced 
every ^emotion connected with beauty and sub- 
limity. We had the picturesque and pleasing ; 
the sombre and sublime ; the grand and the 
gloomy ; the tremendous and the terrible. The 
mountain-gorges were stupendous, the cascades 
were busy feeding a turbulent river which was 
noisily tumbling back into the Spain we had left, 
and after we had passed the summit of the range 
we found other roaring waterfalls equally busy 
in swelling the waves of another river that was 
tumbling, even more noisily, into the France 
that was opening before us. The greatest height 



THE PYRENEES 197 

of ascent was seven thousand feet. Our descent 
was into the valley of the Ariege, a river of 
very respectable dimensions and picturesque 
surroundings. We passed the road which leads 
to the famous republic of Andorra, which has 
retained its independence for six centuries, or 
since the days of Charlemagne. It is well known 
for its sturdy population and marked charac- 
teristics. It is shut in on all sides, except the 
Spanish, by very high mountains. Its whole 
population is but fifteen thousand, that of its 
capital only two thousand, but it prefers its 
independence to an increase of prosperity, and 
offers no welcome to outside barbarians. The 
people raise little but wood and iron, they do a 
snug little business at smuggling, and manage 
to obtain the simpler necessaries of life. 

At last we reached the venerable town of 
Ax, famous since the days of ancient Rome for 
its mineral springs, of which there are sixty. 
The place is frequented now chiefly by middle- 
class French people, but its waters retain their 
virtues though the aristocracy have deserted it. 
There is authentic record of baths here in A. T>, 
1200, one of which still bears the name of the 
Leper's Basin. Ax is a remarkably pretty 
place, as picturesque as mid-Japan ; it has an 
excellent old-fashioned hotel kept by four sharp- 
witted little Frenchwomen, who serve up their 
rather exorbitant bills with so much sauce of 



198 THE PYRENEES 

compliment, and seasoning of flattery, and volu- 
bility of explanation, that we paid with a smile 
of indulgence for our entertainment as a whole, 
and spent three restful days in this sequestered 
nook before pushing on to Tarascon, Toulouse, 
and the French Pyrenees. The beauty of those 
posting days, the zest of that mountain air, the 
wonder and sublimity of those stupendous heights 
will never be forgotten by those who have en- 
joyed them as we did. 



A SUMMER DAY IN SPAIN 

It is the middle of July, and to those who are 
under bondage of certain traditions as to the 
scorching heats of a Spanish summer, it may, at 
first, appear that we are inviting them to a 
doubtful pleasure in asking them to wander over 
the streets of a city and to display the physical 
energy appropriate to that most active class — 
the travelers for pleasure. But we can assure 
our friends that neither comfort nor safety will 
be imperiled by this delicious day in the beauti- 
ful air of Tarragona. 

The city is magnificently situated on a cliff 
which rises more than seven hundred feet above 
the blue waters of the Mediterranean. It com- 
mands a view over the sea — so wide, so clear, 
so grand, that no ocean can rival its perfection. 
The Romans knew how to appreciate the beauty, 
the fertility, and above all the salubrity of this 
favored spot, and they filled it with a busy 
population of a million souls. They enjoyed 
the sea-bathing and the fresh, clear air, and the 
fields sweet with wild lavender and thyme and 
all fragrant herbs, where pine woods and oak 
plantations still furnish a refreshing shade. Its 



200 A SUMMER DAY IN SPAIN 

beauty is now not only tliat of the present 
natural loveliness, but also that of a remote 
past, made picturesque and interesting by the 
centuries which have passed over it. The 
crumbling walls, the ancient towers, the tall, 
many-storied mansions, tempt the artist; an- 
tiquities dating back to Phoenician occupation 
delight the archaeologist ; while pleasure travel- 
ers, like ourselves, are content to lean against 
the seaward parapet to gaze over the bluest of 
seas and watch the clouds as they float across the 
bluest of skies. 

To turn from the enchanting prospect which 
can be seen on all sides, and to seek the dim 
shadows of the cathedral as the sun mounts 
into noonday brilliancy, is only to change the 
nature of one's enjoyment — not to lessen its 
amount. This cathedral ranks as one of the 
most noble specimens of Gothic architecture in 
a country where cathedrals are many and mag- 
nificent. Its influence upon the imagination of 
the spectator is most powerful, even though he 
has been seeing cathedral after cathedral for 
many days. The facade is full of individuality 
and dignity ; its effect is much increased by the 
approach to it from the street below, which is 
made by a flight of steps nearly as broad as the 
church itself, and eighteen in number. The 
portal is deeply recessed, and is a museum of 
Scriptural sculpture and architectural adorn- 



A SUMMER DAY IN SPAIN 201 

ment. Apostles and prophets, angels and saints 
gather there in effigy, as if to offer welcome to 
the pilgrim who draws near. Upon the heavy 
wooden doors, ancient and time-worn, there is a 
remarkable ornamental network of hammered 
iron, so delicate and elegant as to resemble em- 
broidery — a quaint covering for the massive 
doors. We enter and find ourselves in a soft 
twilight shade, very grateful to the eyes that 
have just reached their limit with eager gazing 
on the glowing outside world. Low, massive 
piers stand simple and severe, as if intent only 
on the serious performance of their sustaining 
duties, and long and well have they borne the 
lofty arches which spring above them with so 
bold a freedom. This simplicity of the main 
outlines sets off to admiration the more elabo- 
rate development of the chapels on each side, 
and enhances the splendor of the radiant stained 
glass which flings great rainbows across the 
pavement of the floor. The retablo of the high 
altar has also, as usual, been seized as a fitting 
opportunity for decoration and costly workman- 
ship. Many monuments, scattered here and 
there, recall the memory of kings and saints, 
from Jaime I., dragged from his peaceful seclu- 
sion at Poblet, to Cyprian, proud archbishop in 
Gothic days, and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, 
best beloved of queens, to whom her sister, wife 
of Jaime I., long, long ago erected this stone 



202 A SUMMER DAY IN SPAIN 

memorial. The cloisters, too, are as eloquent 
in beauty and grace as the church itself, and, 
as the monuments within tell of the peace which 
is the portion of the long-since dead, so do these 
quaint old gardens and these cloistered arches 
speak of a peace attainable by those who still 
dwell amid the toils and perplexities and cares 
of busy life. The door which leads to the clois- 
ter is architecturally the finest of all, and the 
sculptures of the cloister-capitals and graceful 
arches are all worthy of separate study. Even 
when the subject is grotesque (as a rat and cat 
funeral and a cock-fight), the manipulation is 
delicate and spirited. 

We enjoyed a long stroll through the tumble- 
down old streets which seem to have forgotten 
their ancient crowds. We suffered little from 
the heat, for the lofty buildings keep the road- 
way in shade, the air from the sea was fresh 
and inspiriting, and at every turn there were 
new objects of ^nterest. We wandered outside 
the gates and climbed the rampart of San An- 
tonio, gaining thereby not only another view of 
the sea, but of the wide fertile inland plain, and 
the thirty-nine arches of the old Roman aque- 
duct, and the so-called Tomb of the Scipios. • 

The return to our hotel took us through the 
older portions of the town, where an indiscrim- 
inate grouping of men, women, children, don- 
keys, and poultry filled each recess which offered 



A SUMMER DAY IN SPAIN 203 

shade available for a siesta. An hour for noon 
breakfast, a brief season of rest, and we were 
again at the sea-wall watching the afternoon 
effects of light, and wandering beneath the lofty- 
city walls, now oddly developed into houses by 
excavating behind them and piercing their solid 
masonry with modern windows, story above 
story. Their height makes them very imposing, 
and the views must be enchanting. A stately 
mansion, rising high even above these, and com- 
manding the hill like a fortress, is said to have 
been the dwelling of Pontius Pilate, and the 
abode of the Eoman emperors who came to visit 
their Spanish colonies. Its foundation walls 
are said to be twenty feet thick. 

As the evening shadows creep on a solemn 
calm steals over earth and sky, and the stars 
watch over fair Tarragona by the sea. 



A MEMOEIAL LEAF 

As the children of men wander over the earth 
and make homes for themselves far from the 
place of their birth, and so create traditions, 
myths, and ancestries for their descendants, so 
in lesser degree in the animal and vegetable 
world migrations occur which introduce favored 
specimens to a wider experience, and perhaps to 
a more personal importance. The canary of the 
Hartz Mountains finds its way to the log cabin of 
the Great West, and the elephant of the African 
jungle follows the fortunes of a circus through 
the villages of New England. 

Our imaginations endow these wanderers with 
personal qualities, and invest them with emo- 
tions. Thus the willows which droop in graceful 
melancholy over the path to the tomb of Wash- 
ington at Mount Vernon seem to tremble with a 
more eloquent sadness because they are the off- 
spring of trees which wept so long over the 
lonely grave of Napoleon at St. Helena. 

As if on purpose to form a contrast to this 
especial instance of transplanting, there went 
forth from that same Mount Vernon more than 
half a century ago, a little acorn which had 



A MEMORIAL LEAF 205 

quietly ripened upon one of George Washing- 
ton's oak-trees. It had prepared itself to exem- 
plify the familiar adage of ancient copy-books 
— the " little acorn " was to grow into the 
"great oak" on an absolutely and incongru- 
ously foreign spot. The republican surround- 
ings of its birth were to be exchanged for the 
most aristocratic" of neighborhoods. Carried to 
St. Petersburg in 1838 by George Sumner (the 
supercargo of an American vessel), it was pre- 
sented by him to the Czar, Nicholas I., who 
caused it to be planted in the garden of imperial 
Peterhof. Mother earth is as friendly to her 
young children in one hemisphere as in the 
other, and her Russian welcome was as life- 
giving as her American permission to exist. 
The little nursling grew apace, and in some 
manner unknown to us humans it transmitted 
its impressions to its brother acorns at home. 
It told them of the grand palace near-by, built 
by a man as great in Russia as their own master 
was in America. It babbled of stately path- 
ways, over which princes and princesses stepped 
in gorgeous array, of magnificent fountains leap- 
ing high in air, of streamlets flowing over marble 
slabs and gathering in marble basins, of statues 
and conservatories, and all the splendors of an 
imperial pleasance. But the young oaks at 
home, though pleased with the pictures painted 
for them by their brother, were no whit daunted 



206 A MEMOKIAL LEAF 

by his descriptions of court etiquette and the 
omnipotence of the autocrat of all the Russias. 
They sent back stories as wonderful as his own. 
The banks of the Potomac were as fine as the 
Neva, the soil was warmer, the air was freer, 
and they were proud of their country. Above 
all, they told of their own hero Washington, 
who had created a nation even more successfully 
than Peter the Great had done, and whose am- 
bition had been to be something greater than an 
anointed king. So enthusiastic were they, and 
so true is it that blood, even in an acorn, is 
thicker than water, that almost unconsciously 
the young oak took on an air of sturdy inde- 
pendence even while responding, as a gentleman 
should, to the hospitality which had sheltered 
him. He is still proud to wear an inscription 
in brass which sets forth his American origin, 
and when his countrymen, who leave no portion 
of the earth unvisited, pause before him, a rustle 
of sympathy stirs his leaves. 

Among the visitors at Peterhof in the summer 
of 1895 was Miss Florence Bayard, daughter of 
our present ambassador at the English court. 
For her a friendly official plucked a leaf from 
" Washington's Oak " as a souvenir of her visit. 
Miss Bayard presented it to the writer of this 
sketch, who was also at St. Petersburg. The 
gift had especial significance, as the recipient is 
one of those who have for many years had in 



A MEMORIAL LEAF 207 

their charge the home of Washington, at Mount 
Vernon. Under her care the leaf wandered over 
many countries, but crossed the Atlantic in sea- 
son to appear at the Mount Vernon Council of 
1896. It is now deposited among the relics 
stored in the mansion, where it will doubtless 
remain until, in peaceful decay, it mingles with 
its ancestral dust. 



"ON THE HEIGHTS" 

The heat of Calcutta on the twenty-eighth of 
March was too great to make a prolonged stay- 
agreeable, in spite of certain attractions in this 
seat of British empire. The interval between 
our arrival in this torrid region (where the mer- 
cury stands at 103 Fahrenheit) and the date of 
our sailing allows ample time for a visit to the 
upper hills, whither all who are able to do so flee 
when the lowlands are sweltering under the too 
fervid rays of the pitiless sun. Not that Cal- 
cutta is not crowded with people undeterred by 
the hottest wave in the pursuit of wealth ; the 
hotels are overflowing, the streets swarm with 
carriages and with foot passengers, the shops 
are tempting even to an overheated customer. 

A few hours suflice to procure our welcome 
home letters, to refresh ourselves after our long 
journey, and to prepare for another. In the 
late afternoon we were once more on the train, 
and speeding across a very lovely country, paus- 
ing at stations surrounded by gorgeous gardens 
riotous in brilliant blossoms and climbing vines. 
We crossed the Ganges about eight in the even- 
ing, by which time the air had cooled to a deli- 



«0N THE HEIGHTS" 209 

cious freshness. The steamer was a large one, 
but adapted to the shallow water over which our 
voyage took us. We remained on board several 
hours, but finished the night on a railway train. 
In the morning we were transferred to the Hima- 
layan Eailway at Siliguri station. This road 
has a gauge of only two feet, and is a marvel of 
enoineerino: skill. We ascend at the rate of a 
thousand feet an hour, progress being necessa- 
rily slow. The road is a succession of zig-zags, 
loops, and ox-bows, by which we attain about 
nine thousand feet. The scenery is magnificent, 
the foliage presents the leafage of every climate, 
the gorges, into which we look down, are pro- 
found and perilous, the heights rise heavenward 
above our heads, the temperature grows colder 
and colder, till all our wraps are in use. 

Darjeeling is a famous watering-place, or 
rather a cooling-place, encamped among the 
clouds, and its houses look as if they came down 
in a thunder-shower and had adhered where 
they alighted. We stopped at the " Wood- 
lands," which is romantically situated on a bluff 
quite inaccessible to unathletic limbs, and so a 
boon to the bearers of the waiting swinging- 
chairs called here " dandies." A part of our 
welcome at the hotel consisted of a bright coal 
fire in my room, by the side of which it was dif- 
ficult to recall the recent sensations in Calcutta. 
A heavy fog obscured the distant view. It only 



210 "ON THE HEIGHTS" 

made the returning sunshine seem the more 
brilliant. 

To gaze upon the heaven-scaling heights of 
the Himalayas and breathe the thin air of that 
wilderness of precipices, ravines, abysses, and 
mountain-peaks assembled at Darjeeling, some 
three hundred miles beyond hot and dusty Cal- 
cutta, was like visiting another planet. The 
town is perched like an eagle's nest upon the 
heights, the air is laden with breath from the 
ice-fields. From the filth of Benares to the pure 
serenity of this unsullied region is a long but 
lovely leap, and our lungs expand with deep 
relief. When the clouds gather we admire their 
massive gloom ; when they scatter we are rav- 
ished by the splendor they reveal. We are nine 
thousand feet in air ourselves, but there rise 
above us first a range of peaks fifteen thousand 
feet, and beyond these high in the heavens, 
glowing in the upper sunlight, dazzling with 
unsullied snows, we see with awe the mighty 
Himalaya mountains towering to a height of 
twenty-nine thousand, — the loftiest, the grand- 
est, the most majestic in the world. 

During a few days of cloudy weather we were 
fain to content ourselves with things immediately 
around us, and to explore the bazaars in the 
village ; we also visited a very dirty temple. A 
variety of different tribes assemble in this neigh- 
borhood, and annual fairs are held, which bring 



"ON THE HEIGHTS" 211 

together a strange medley of people and tongues. 
Their costumes include those appropriate to the 
arctic regions, the temperate zone, and even 
those suitable to the hot valleys below. Their 
religions are also represented by prayer wheels, 
idols, votive offerings, squalid worshipers, and 
dirty priests. The dingy paraphernalia of these 
degraded heathen, and the besotted superstition 
which holds a people in its thrall, make one 
wonder over the immense differences in the 
moral condition of human beings, which arise 
simply from the presence or the absence of a 
few healthful or morbid influences. It was 
pleasant to turn from these half brutes to the 
simplicity and beauty and cleanliness of the 
botanical gardens at Rungarum, which are most 
picturesquely situated, and where a fine collec- 
tion of the trees and shrubs peculiar to the 
Himalaya region may be found. Our horse- 
back excursions gave us a fair knowledge of 
the environs of Darjeeling, which is certainly 
one of the most picturesque places in the world. 
Its heights vary from four thousand to nine thou- 
sand feet above the sea, the climate is cool, not 
cold, and it is a meeting-place for very various 
races and conditions. 

One brilliant morning we arose to watch the 
sun as he came forth from his pavilion in the 
east, and like a magician smote peak after peak 
with a roseate beam, and smiled upon a wel- 



212 "ON THE HEIGHTS" 

coming world ; — as the day wore on the glory 
of high noon flooded the masses of snow with 
molten gold; and when the sunset hour came 
with hues of violet and rose, it suffused them 
with a tender radiance, till twilight gently cov- 
ered them with soft obscuring shadows. Never 
can such a vision be forgotten, for the Hima- 
layas so tower above all other mountains as to 
attain the uttermost sublimity of which the mind 
can take cognizance. 

One horseback ride was to Tiger Hill, some 
nine miles away, from which, when a traveler 
is lucky, a magnificent view of Mount Everest 
and the rest of the upper peaks rewards him. 
The whole ride was interesting ; we skirted the 
edge of tremendous precipices, and the borders 
of deep ravines filled with luxuriant vegetation 
which concealed, by adorning, the enormous 
depths. Many points of especial interest made 
us pause on our way, and when we reached the 
summit of the hill we dismounted, and, seated on 
the ground, partook of a luncheon which our long 
ride made very welcome. The landscape all 
around us was enchanting, but the especial view 
for which we had come declined to appear ; 
neither Mount Everest nor Kinchin junga would 
show his head. But, as I have said, there was 
one day of glorious sunshine when Kinchinjunga 
and his massive attendant summits, called The 
Treasuries of the Snows, robed in spotless 



"ON THE HEIGHTS" 213 

ermine, towered far, far above, and bade us, 
who had thought the Mexican Popocatapetl a 
mighty mountain, to pause and measure, and 
comprehend what twenty-nine thousand feet 
meant in comparison to eighteen thousand. 

We left Darjeeling at ten in the morning, and 
were on the train all day and all night. The 
descent of the mountains is as impressive as 
the ascent, but frequently gives totally different 
views of the same picture. The heat had re- 
mained unbroken at Calcutta, but did not deter 
us from looking at its famous places. It was a 
long but charming drive to the Botanical Gar- 
dens, which claim to be the finest in the world. 
Indeed it would be difficult to surpass their 
attractions. " The area of the garden is two 
hundred and seventy-two acres with river front- 
age of a mile." The orchid house was a mass 
of resplendent blossoms ; the fern house looked 
like a beautiful antediluvian landscape ; and the 
avenue of royal palms reminded us of Karnak's 
majestic columns. The great banyan-tree covers 
an enormous extent of ground, has two hundred 
subsidiary roots, and produces the effect of a 
large and compact grove, under which a whole 
regiment could easily encamp. The drives and 
walks about the place are almost endless in ex- 
tent, and the order and finished elegance in all 
ways beyond praise. The drive home at sunset 
was very beautiful. 



214 "ON THE HEIGHTS" 

Calcutta IS an immense city, having a million 
of inhabitants, and an enormous commerce. The 
Government House is fine, the modern portion 
has broad streets and airy squares. In the 
Indian Museum we saw extremely interesting 
antiquities, particularly a figure of Buddha six 
feet high, with a carved floral halo around its 
head ; also some extraordinary human figures in 
a seated posture, and furnished with large wings. 
Also a fine frieze adorned with naked boys, not 
inferior to Greek art. 

We left Calcutta not unwillingly, and set sail 
for Ceylon on the steamer Ganges. 



A TRANSIT ACEOSS INDIA 

It was a very agreeable voyage, by which, 
on leaving Egypt (after a delightful winter in 
that interesting country), we were transported 
to India to make acquaintance with those gor- 
geous realities upon which so many of our visions 
had long been based, and to behold for ourselves 
the wonders of art and the glories of nature, 
which are comprised in that name, " The 
Orient." 

We left Ismailia, midway on the Suez Canal, 
in the morning of the second of March, 1893, 
by the English steamship Arcadia, one of the 
largest vessels of the merchant fleet. She was a 
magnificent creature, and did indeed 

" Walk the waters like a thing of life, 
And seem to dare the elements to strife." 

But the elements were not in a quarrelsome 
mood, — there was peace in the serene sky 
above, and in the placid emerald-hued waters of 
the canal below. We floated lazily along, for 
vessels are forbidden to go at greater speed than 
seven miles an hour, as a more rapid motion 
would wash away the soft sand of the shore. So 
we make only rippling wavelets, as it were, but 



216 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

they are beaded with diamonds and pearls and 
rubies as they slip from under our huge keel, 
and glide away in the brilliant sunshine, which 
flashes down upon them. We have only thirty 
first-class and forty second-saloon passengers, for 
it is late in the season, and the trend of travel 
is in the opposite direction. 

We sailed steadily southward on the tranquil 
bosom of the Red Sea, and by the end of the 
second day were well launched into a much 
ameliorated climate — a welcome change, for 
the early spring air had often been nipping. 
Now our wrappings are all discarded, the mas- 
culine passengers array themselves in snow-white 
summer vestments, and wipe their moistened 
brows ; the ladies appear in gauzy, diaphanous 
textures ; the officers of the ship are resplen- 
dent in white linen, the breezy punkahs wave 
over the dinner-tables, and complaints of heat 
abound. 

We had smooth seas and summer sunshine to 
Aden, and the Strait of Bab-el-Mandib was not 
to us " The Gate of Tears." Nor was the Red 
Sea tiresome, though it is fourteen hundred 
miles long and a trifle monotonous. At Aden 
we were transferred to the P. and O. steamer 
Peninsula, and took on board the Indian mail 
of six hundred and fifty big bags filled with 
letters and parcels, all of which were examined 
on board and stamped for distribution. This 



A TKANSIT ACROSS INDIA 217 

process kept several postal clerks busy for three 
days, and their monotonous tap-tap was heard at 
night long after the other noises of the ship had 
died away. 

We entered the beautiful harbor of Bombay 
at ten o'clock on a fine clear morning. The voy- 
age of ten days had been so delightful that we 
felt none of the feverish eagerness to get on 
shore which usually besets one after confine- 
ment on board ship. A few hours sufficed to 
make us comfortable at a hotel, and then our 
sightseeing began. Now Bombay is a very 
splendid city — rich in magnificent buildings 
erected by the English Government ; the streets 
and squares in the European quarter are spa- 
cious and the shops are fine ; the Victoria Station 
cost a million of dollars and is a stone structure 
of imposing dimensions and pretentious but 
really successful architecture ; and other edifices 
worthy a traveler's attention are in sight. There 
await us also the novel attractions of the native 
city where by far the larger part of the popula- 
tion of eight hundred thousand is crowded into 
a small portion of the territory. But all these 
objects of interest pale into insignificance before 
the strange but irresistible fascination which 
draws us to one spot ; a spot dedicated to uses 
absolutely unique in religious significance and in 
human custom. We go straight to the famous 
Towers of Silence, the strange cemetery of the 



218 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

Parsees. We drove past handsome residences 
and through the crowded streets of the native 
quarter ; we climbed the ascent of Malabar Hill, 
on the summit of which these ghastly horrors 
stand. The approach by which funeral proces- 
sions arrive is over a stone staircase of eighty 
steps, very gradual in ascent, and so long in use 
that it has been, as it were, adopted by the hill- 
side as a portion of itself. Then come exten- 
sive and solemn gardens where unbroken silence 
reigns. A few buildings are near by, which 
serve for houses of prayer and other religious 
observances, but we give them only a hasty 
glance, and pass on under the shadow of fune- 
real trees, conducted by the grave official who 
had received us at the top of the staircase. The 
impression upon the imagination is immediate, 
you surrender at once to the depressing influ- 
ences which assail you. Five massive towers, 
circular in shape, ghastly white in color, unre- 
lieved in outline, utterly bare, unadorned and 
melancholy, stand mysterious in naked gloom, 
but strangely suggestive of death and sorrow. 
Upon the top of the walls, otherwise unbroken in 
their bleached nakedness, there sit in mysterious 
silence scores of gaunt black vultures waiting 
for their dreadful feast. The branches of the 
neighboring trees are also resting-places for 
countless others that have either been recently 
gorged with human flesh or see no immediate 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 219 

opportunity for obtaining a share in the next 
repast. Since there are forty thousand Parsees 
in Bombay, however, no vulture need go long 
hungry. We soon reach the largest of the 
towers ; it is two hundred and seventy- six feet 
in circumference, and twenty-five feet high, 
with no architectural pretensions, with no effort 
at dignity, no softening of lines, no disguise of 
its purpose. About eight feet from the ground 
is the only opening into this dreary receptacle 
for the dead, — a low doorway, reached by an 
inclined plane, over which the bearers of the 
dead alone may pass with their uncoffined 
burden. They are robed in white, the Parsee 
color for mourning. It is the belief of the 
Parsees that the soul does not leave the body 
till four days after death ; therefore it may be 
watching over this terrible disposal of its own 
deserted house. It is said that in half an hour 
after the body has been deposited in the groove 
intended for it, not a shred of flesh remains 
upon the bones, and a ghastly fascination is 
added to the picture by the statement that the 
first task of the swooping birds is to tear out 
the poor eyes that so lately looked love on those 
about them or wept tears of anguish or of sor- 
row. A model of the towers is shown by the 
keeper, so that we may understand the arrange- 
ments of the interior, which are admirable for 
the desired purpose. The form of the building 



220 A TEANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

is like an immense circular gridiron, depressed 
in the centre and open to the sky. The largest 
grooves or conduits are for the bodies of men, 
the next for women, and those near the centre 
for children. The bearers of the dead wear 
gloves and handle the bones with tongs to avoid 
pollution. It is said that their robes are also 
burned, but even these precautions do not 
exempt them from social ostracism. The bones 
soon turn to dust or are washed by rains into 
a central well, with skillfully constructed sub- 
structures for disposing of all that remains, and 
for thorough cleansing of the whole premises. 
Doubtless this method is excellent from a hy- 
gienic point of view, but it has a cruelty of 
suggestion and a barbarity of execution that 
turn one faint to think of. But the Parsees 
regard the elements as sacred, they must not be 
polluted — and death brings about the deepest 
depth of pollution. The corpse, therefore, can- 
not be burned in fire, or drowned in water, or 
buried in earth, or allowed to poison the air in 
slow decay. So this strange, elaborate, repul- 
sive but oppressively solemn place is set apart 
with its pathetic name, its gardens, in which the 
flowers fail to cheer, and the sunshine fails to 
smile ; its silence, which pierces the heart ; its 
Pariah attendants, whose aspect betrays the 
gloom of their lives and the isolation in which 
they dwell ; above all the horror of foul birds 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 221 

sitting in sleepy stupidity after their fearful 
feasting, or watching with keen-eyed eagerness 
for the coming of new victims. It is impossible 
to resist the morbid influences which assail tho 
nerves as we stand in the hushed stillness of 
the waning afternoon, and think of all the as- 
sociations connected with so strange a faith, so 
relentlessly carried into action. The Parsees 
are, however, reckoned among the most enlight- 
ened of the Indian races, and welcome modern 
ideas in general and adopt modern customs 
with extraordinary promptitude. How long 
this especial tradition from a remote past may 
retain its power is, of course, uncertain, but 
while it does maintain its dominion, it presents 
a most interesting problem. So far as this faith 
is a still living force its power is evidently 
permeating and apparently immovable. It is 
by no means free from superstitions, and has 
gathered around it the usual corruptions which 
too oft;en obscure and belittle a once dignified 
religion. The Parsee priest prays for three 
days over the dead, on the fourth money is given 
away in the name of the deceased, and solemn 
religious ceremonies are performed. 

One prominent superstition has a pathetic 
interest. It is a belief in the efficacy of a dog's 
gaze upon a dead body. Dogs are sacred crea- 
tures, and are supposed to guide the poor 
puzzled souls of men to heaven, and to defend 



222 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

them on the way against evil spirits ; hence it is 
customary to lead a dog into the chamber of 
death that he may look at the corpse and know 
it before it is carried to the Towers of Silence. 

It was difficult to shake off the impression of 
this melancholy place ; even the prayer-houses 
and long piazzas with their empty seats speak 
of the despair of the living, as they surrender 
their beloved dead to so terrible a fate. They 
firmly believe in the resurrection of the body 
and that these rudely scattered fragments will 
be brought together again in a glorified form ; — 
but - — meanwhile, how bear the thought of the 
torn flesh, the flowing blood, the exposed and 
bleaching bones ! And, for me, another and 
more immediate anguish was added, by the 
subtle, insidious, sickening odor which per- 
vades the air, or did for me, in spite of all the 
scientific sanitation ; it exhaled from earth and 
air and sky, it stole in upon my senses — a 
breath, faint and intangible, but overwhelming 
and persistent, since, having once entered at my 
nostrils, I can never quite forget it or get away 
from it. And yet — and yet, I long to go there 
again, to reach once more that emotional climax 
of pathos and of pain. 

We drove away over the brow of the hill, 
passing lovely flower-embosomed homes (for the 
Towers of Silence are surrounded with the 
dwellings of the wealthy and the most fashion- 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 223 

able portion of society) ; we met gay equipages 
and pretty children with picturesque nurses ; 
the western heavens softened in the tender haze 
of coming night ; a fresh pure breeze came from 
the sea ; the sounds of life in work or play were 
all around us ; the earth was fair, the heavens 
were serene, and man was forgetful or indif- 
ferent, — but for us, the pain of an unutter- 
able sorrow, and the gloom of an impenetrable 
mystery, will forever enshroud the Towers of 
Silence. 

Another peculiar but quite different institu- 
tion in Bombay is the Pinjra Pol, or infirmary 
for animals. It covers several acres of ground, 
and is divided into districts for different classes 
of patients. It is in the quarter dedicated to 
the Lord of the Simple, who has a temple within 
the inclosure. We were much interested, not 
only in the invalids themselves, who were, some 
of them, in sorry plight, but also in the mild- 
mannered, soft-voiced young Mohammedan at- 
tendant, who waited on us and gave us many 
particulars concerning his charge. The animals 
are evidently shielded from all possible ills. 

But we shall see little of India if I detain you 
so long at its entrance gate ; so I will only tell 
you of an excursion to the wonderful Caves of 
Elephanta. We took a small steam launch and 
set forth under a smiling sky and in apparently 
calm weather, but the island of Elephanta is six 



224 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

miles distant from the city, and soon the winds 
piped shrilly, the waves arose, and we shipped 
frequent seas. Our boat was evidently unsea- 
worthy, but it was as bad to go back as to go 
forward, so we pushed on under circumstances 
of very perceptible danger. In fact, we were in 
much more threatening conditions than we had 
ever been in crossing the Atlantic. After more 
than an hour of discomfort we arrived at the 
landing, but were still far from the shore. We 
had to reach it on foot over a stone causeway 
standing high above the dancing waves which 
make an ordinary landing-place impossible. The 
big square stones were set about a foot apart, in 
order to allow the force of the waves to expend 
itself between them ; the outer stones were slip- 
pery with seaweed, and in stepping from one 
to the next, the rushing water beneath made us 
extremely dizzy. The stones are about six feet 
square and stand four or five feet above water 
even when the waves dash high among them. 
The whole affair, however, was entirely harmo- 
nious in its way. The risks from which we had 
escaped, the wild and tossing sea, the scurrying 
clouds, the half-naked natives, and the tropical 
vegetation were all in contrast to our usual sur- 
roundings. The cave-temples are high up in the 
cliffs, the approach to them is made by a succes- 
sion of those grand out-of-door stairways so dear 
to the oriental mind. The labor is tremendous 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 225 

to all but oriental agility, so I took a chair 
borne in air by two natives, and was soon at 
the top of the ascent where a splendid view of 
sea and shore awaited me. 

The deeply excavated caves are wonderful 
places and present vividly the different expres- 
sion given to religious ideas in ancient India and 
those of the Egypt we have recently been study- 
ing. Here we find absolutely grotesque repre- 
sentations of beings half monsters and half gods, 
and sculptured stories from the complex myth- 
ology of the Hindoos. The entrance is between 
two massive pillars left standing as the porphyry 
rock was cut away, and the roof inside is sup- 
ported by a score of the same rough-hewn col- 
umns. On one side of the entrance is the shrine 
containing the Lingam stone, polished very 
smooth by the reverent kisses of many genera- 
tions of w^orshipers. But it is the spirited 
sculpture all around us that is most interesting. 
The amount of expression which those old artists 
succeeded in bringing to the colossal faces of 
Shiva and Parabati while their wedding cere- 
mony is going on partakes of the supernatural, 
and indeed many devout Hindoos believe these 
sculptures to be the work of the gods themselves 
and to far transcend any possible human skill. 
It seems impossible that the modestly downcast 
eyelids of the bride and the air of conscious 
pride of the bridegroom should be chiseled from 



226 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

that coarse black-gray stone. Here appears the 
most striking contrast from the cahn, impassive 
countenances and restful majesty of Egyptian 
statues. Life and passion, and variety, even 
dramatic effect, characterize the numerous scenes 
here set forth. The three-faced Shiva is nine- 
teen feet from brow to chin, and admirably 
worked out by the chisel ; the groups scattered 
about represent great events in the history of 
gods and goddesses quite unlike our old friends 
Isis and Osiris, and the great Amnion Ra. Much 
learning is necessary to expound them, but a 
very little suffices to make one catch at their 
general meaning and to appreciate their weird 
fascination. The mythological legends are car- 
ried out with great elaboration, and every one 
of the numerous accessories has its own deep 
significance. It would require many pages of 
description to give an adequate idea of the 
extraordinary narratives set out in this colossal 
picture-book. 

Our next stopping-place of importance was 
the ancient and honorable city of Ahmedabad, 
which many travelers pass by, but which richly 
deserves examination. It was once the greatest 
city in Western India and retains many indica- 
tions of bygone splendor. It is especially rich 
in old carved woodwork, which, being in the re- 
markably hard wood of the East, resists decay. 
One sees exquisite brackets, balustrades, and 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 227 

cornices upon buildings long ago abandoned to 
base ;ases — and a rich harvest might no doubt 
be reaped by any one who would extricate them 
from their low surroundings and cleanse them 
from the dirt which may have helped to preserve 
them. 

Our first visit was paid to the tombs of the 
queens across the street from that of Ahmed Sha, 
their lord and master. The architecture is elab- 
orate and beautiful, the windows of perforated 
stone and delicate in tracery ; the pure white 
marble and the airy and fanciful outlines begin 
to reveal to us the peculiar grace and beauty of 
Indian architecture. A long visit to the Jumma 
Musjid or Great Mosque greatly deepens this 
impression. Its roof is supported by two hun- 
dred and sixty columns ; it has fifteen cupolas 
and many galleries connecting them. Descrip- 
tions of buildings are thankless efforts and I will 
not weary you with measurements. I will only 
repeat for you the inscription over the prayer- 
niche. It runs thus : " This high and far-stretch- 
ing Mosque was raised by the slave who trusts 
in the mercy of God, the compassionate, the 
alone-to-be-worshiped." 

The most delicate stonework even in Ahmeda- 
bad is that in the two renowned windows of Sidi 
Said's mosque, now used for official purposes. 
They are like the tracery that the frost spreads 
over our own windows in mid-winter. 



228 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

We spent delightful hours in examining these 
ancient edifices and time-stained relics of a 
glorious past, and then turned to the modern 
splendors of the temple of Hathi Sing, which 
is regarded as proof that modern Hindoo art has 
not degenerated from its ancient skill either in 
conception or execution. 

Indeed it would be difficult to surpass its 
elaborate and intricate ornamentation. This 
sumptuous temple consists of an outer court and 
inner shrine upon which a million of rupees has 
been expended. Built of the purest white mar- 
ble, it has fifty-three domes, which cover as many 
gorgeously adorned altars, whereon sit the wise- 
looking statues of the twenty-four wise and holy 
men called Tirthankas and other images of saints 
and deities. They are decked with all imagina- 
ble lavishness ; they have precious stones for 
eyes, and gold and silver and enamel for their 
scanty raiment. Lamps burn perpetually above 
them ; flowers and fruits are offered on their al- 
tars, priests and doorkeepers watch over their 
safety and their sanctity. The marble pavements 
over which we glide in the woolen slippers pro- 
vided for us are so beautiful in tint and polish 
that even so softly shod, we hesitate to tread 
upon them. The exterior of the temple is over- 
loaded with sculptured figures in miniature pro- 
portions and infinite variety, while the building 
itself is so secluded from public view and sur- 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 229 

rounded by so many other buildings that it has 
the effect of a jeweled casket under lock and 
key, only to be exhibited under certain pre- 
scribed conditions. 

We have now reached the country where water 
becomes of prime importance, and the symbol of 
all that is refreshing and invigorating. So when 
our carriage stops at an imposing structure 
where arches rise above arches, and galleries 
hang in air, we learn without astonishment that 
we are at the wells of Dada. An ascent from 
the road leads to a platform which surrounds the 
immense well and permits us to look down into 
its cool and shadowed depths. " A domed portico 
supported by twelve pillars gives entrance to 
three tiers of finely constructed galleries, which 
lead to the two wells, one of which is for the 
city's use, and the other for more general irriga- 
tion. The beauty of the building is greatly en- 
hanced by the mosses and ferns and climbing 
vines which cover the walls and rejoice in the 
moisture, to which they owe their birth." The 
place was cool and fresh even at the noontide 
hour. 

We took shelter from the intense heat in our 
room at the Dak Bungalow, or station apartment 
which is furnished for transient travelers. It 
was comparatively cool, but was frequented by 
mosquitoes as lively and as attentive as those in 
Bombay. But as yet we have seen no cock- 



230 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

roaches to compare with the athletic giants that 
obstructed our path in that city. As for crows 
they are everywhere in multitudes, they darken 
the air with their flying squadrons and exasperate 
the nerves with their incessant squawking. They 
alight in the most impertinently familiar fashion, 
they investigate all the performances going on 
beneath their perch, examining each phenomenon 
in an apparently scientific spirit and with a frank 
and trustful desire for knowledge which de- 
mands your approval and your sympathy. And 
then there are the merry monkeys with preter- 
naturally solemn faces, but free and mischievous, 
slinging themselves from limb to limb in the tall 
trees or chattering and munching nuts on the 
house-tops. Many such creatures we saw while 
driving out from the town to the wonderful 
" tank " or artificial lake built in 1451. There 
is a little island in the middle, with a royal 
palace and gardens, and a driveway all around 
it more than a mile in length. The sweet shade 
of trees, the sparkling water, the finely hewn 
stone steps leading into the lake, the dusky na- 
tives scattered in groups, and the sylvan air of 
the whole scene presented the realization of many 
an oriental dream. So we return to our quarters 
filled with romantic ideas — we find the rooms 
close and stuffy, and, in spite of our membership 
of the Humane Society, we immediately secure 
two natives to pull our punkahs all night. This 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 231 

service was cheerfully and faithfully performed, 
and the men were perfectly satisfied with a pay- 
ment of four annas (eight cents) apiece. 

The railway carriages were extremely spacious 
and comfortable, and traveling at night was 
rather agreeable. The compartments allow one 
to lie at full length, and as we had one to our- 
selves always, we could wander from side to side 
as the view tempted us or the shade invited us ; 
the air was soft, and all the windows open ; our 
lunch-basket was well filled, and at every stop- 
ping-place our Indian servant, John Emanuel, 
appeared for orders. Even in the middle of the 
night hot tea could be had, and empty soda- 
water bottles could be replaced with full ones. 
Fatigue was impossible, and the novelty of the 
scenes amused us when awake, and mingled in 
our dreams when asleep. 

It is hard to refrain from giving the whole of 
my diary, since every day has its chronicle of 
delightful sights and interesting incidents. A 
wonderful museum has been established at Jey- 
pore, which contains antiquities and curiosities 
truly fascinating to the student of India. It 
will do much towards the preservation of relics 
invaluable to artists and historians. Jeypore is 
the residence of a Maharajah, and has its pal- 
aces and gardens ; its hospitals, and colleges, and 
mosques ; its manufactories of exquisite brass- 
work and strange fabrics, the finer specimens of 



232 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

which are held at tantalizingly high prices. 
Many of the shops and salesrooms require a 
guide to discover the obscure buildings in what, 
to a foreigner, would appear an inaccessible lo- 
cality. They are arranged on a diametrically 
opposite principle to that which fills our spacious 
streets with gay and conspicuous shops. 

The architecture of Jeypore is often preten- 
tious in color and fantastic in form, but the 
material is flimsy and the condition dilapidated. 
We drove through one long street where all the 
buildings were pink ; another street was all 
in blue ; another green, but the walls, and tur- 
rets, and pinnacles were of wood and plaster, 
and dropping to pieces. The show apartments 
of the royal palace were as gaudy as a second- 
class cafe, but the gardens were beautiful, and 
the zenana or harem is, at least in outside effect, 
a fine affair, towering to a height of seven sto- 
ries, and looking all the more imposing from 
contrast with the usually low dwellings of the 
country. One can ride to the top of the palace 
over an inclined plane. 

We visited the sultan's stables containing 
three hundred horses, each one tied by the hind 
legs in what seemed to us a cruel fashion. They 
were otherwise well cared for, but the grooms 
were stuffing the mouths of some with a nau- 
seous mixture of grease and grain. The ele- 
phants belonging to the Kajah make a fine 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 233 

display ; he has also huge tanks where hideous 
crocodiles disport themselves or come out of 
their hiding-places at the call of their keeper, 
who makes a sound weird enough to call spirits 
from the vasty deep. Perhaps the crocodiles are 
spirits in penitential disguise. 

tTeypore is an extremely important and active 
commercial centre, but we are determined that 
no money-getting and prosaic present shall ob- 
scure for us the romance and the glory of ancient 
India. In this mood we inform (officially) the 
courteous Rajah of a wish near our hearts, and 
he sends an elephant to take us up the steep 
ascent leading to the long deserted city of 
Amber, which in the olden days was the strong- 
hold of his ancestors, and the seat of more than 
imperial magnificence. All that now remains 
of the once populous city is a spacious palace 
superbly situated high above the valley, where 
many sumptuous apartments are kept in order 
for the visit of the Rajah on state occasions. 
The many-columned Hall of Audience glows in 
color ; all the rooms are rich in mosaic, and 
gilding, and enamel, and the effect is heightened 
by the inlaying of countless bits of looking-glass 
which sparkle like diamonds. Here, too, is the 
shrine where once a human being was daily 
sacrificed ; his place is now supplied by a poor 
goat, whose blood stains every morning the mar- 
ble pavement before the altar. We just escaped 



234 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

the dismal performance. We wandered through 
numerous apartments where many generations 
of harem inmates have lived, and perhaps loved 
in their splendid prison, from which the magni- 
ficent prospect must often have awakened hope- 
less yearning for freedom. The ride up and 
down the long hill road on the immense elephant 
was very comfortable, and the courtesy of the 
Kajah in supplying travelers so fine a convey- 
ance without charge, except small fees to the 
drivers, is a rare sort of incident in a traveler's 
experience. 

Once more on the railway we make occasional 
stops, when everything becomes like a scene at 
the opera, and where color, and light, and 
movement produce a series of kaleidoscopic 
pictures. The Indian races, once so indolent, 
have been rendered very uneasy by the facilities 
which modern railroads furnish for cheap travel- 
ing, and the third-class carriages are crowded 
with people going great distances to attend 
religious festivals, which, under the old regime, 
were inaccessible to them. They troop past our 
car windows by hundreds, clad in every color of 
the rainbow, carrying every conceivable article 
of household, domestic, personal, and private 
use. In fact our methods for compressing 
traveling equipage into small dimensions find 
no favor in the East ; the servants of a traveler 
and the employes of the railway company com- 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 235 

bine to jam into a heterogeneous mass inside the 
ear the odd muddle which constitutes a gentle- 
man's traveling outfit. As ladies do not travel 
unless they are benighted foreign barbarians, we 
do not know what they would insist on bringing 
with them, or rather what they might be per- 
suaded to leave at home. 

Delhi is an enchanting place, where one would 
like to linger. We had there the services of a 
Lilliputian valet-de-place named Chunna, who, 
in a white linen frock starched to pasteboard 
stiffness, and sticking out on both sides like the 
surcoat of the old Jack of spades, and with his 
pipestem legs encased in the tightest of black 
stockings, looked like a beetle on its hind feet. 
It was impossible to look at him without laugh- 
ing, but nothing disturbed his calm superiority. 
He appeared to be a growing boy, but soon 
introduced us to his wife and children. 

The history of Delhi is a continuous narrative 
of war and glory, till the pathetic story of the 
Indian Mutiny seems to close the history of 
bloodshed. The terrific tragedies of a remote 
past, the mysterious and shameless crimes, the 
wholesale butcheries which have stained fair field 
and smiling river in scarlet, have passed away, 
— but the mutiny of 1857 still stirs the blood 
with living memories, and it is in the ruins of 
the last siege of Delhi that we are most deeply 
moved ; it is the procession of ghosts that once 



\ 



236 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

were English men and women that now appears 
in the dusk of twilight or sits at midnight on 
those blood-stained graves. Volumes have been 
written on the great mutiny, and many hearts 
have thrilled at the terrible story, but when we 
stand upon the ground made sacred by such suf- 
fering, nobly borne, and read upon these tablets 
the names that rang through Christendom only 
half a century ago, the memories awakened cease 
to be a simple historic narrative, and enter into 
the secret places of our hearts like some intense, 
intolerable personal experience. 

The old fort is a grand fortification still ; its 
massive battlemented walls of dark freestone 
still frown sternly on the intruder. We enter 
at the Lahore gate, a portal worthy of the grand 
scenes it has witnessed. Within the citadel are 
the old palaces, the halls of audience, the ancient 
harem buildings, and from the ramparts may be 
seen fine views of the river and the surrounding 
country. Here, also, once stood the famous 
peacock throne carried to Persia by Nadir Shah 
in 1739. Two peacocks covered with gold, and 
studded with gems, a canopy supported by 
golden pillars, and so on, and so on ; — but to 
describe these objects of oriental luxury, these 
apartments of fairy-like ornamentation, and the 
incomparable workmanship of the artists, is sim- 
ply to exhaust superlatives, and fail to depict. 
No written account conveys a faithful idea of 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 237 

these things, nor will the most careful enumera- 
tion of particulars present the grand whole. I 
can only say that the palaces and mosques are 
vast, gorgeous, resplendent with polished mar- 
ble, and mosaic, and painting, and enamel, and 
gold, and silver, and color ; that arches succeed 
arches, and columns follow columns ; that the 
detail is as delicate as the size is majestic. 

I will take you, for a contrast, into the quiet 
shops, in the out-of-the-way places I have spoken 
of, where we shall find a hushed silence and an 
impressive twilight ; where slim attendants bring 
out, at a sign from the dignified potentate who 
rules over the establishment, treasures of im- 
mense value, over which commercial conversa- 
tion must be made. In these often small and 
unattractive shops there lie gems as if they were 
pebbles on a shore, embroideries heaped up like 
bales of cotton, priceless rugs, and satins whose 
sheen is set off by the soft fleeces of Cashmere. 
There are ivory carvings delicate as Mechlin 
lace ; cloth of gold stiff as ancient armor ; metal- 
work shimmering as woven sunbeams. 

Our rooms at the hotel open directly on a 
portion of the old city wall, and give us a view 
of the country beyond. The little passage be- 
tween allows the unheralded approach of many 
so-called merchants, doubtless agents of the big 
shops. They come upon you in the most start- 
ling manner, their unshod feet make no sound. 



238 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

their motion is catlike and stealthy ; you look 
up, and black eyes are gleaming at your open 
window; or a dark form comes between you 
and the light, and lo, in the twinkling of an eye 
a huge bundle falls apart at your feet, and 
shawls, and rugs, and portieres, and muslins, or 
embroideries, and silver work, and gold work, 
and inlaid work tumble forth, or photographs 
unfold in myriads. These men are in fact an 
absolute and irritating nuisance, at which the 
traveler actively rebels. And yet they are 
amusing for a time ; they swarm on the piazzas, 
they encamp on the steps, they interpose between 
you and your carriage, they hang their goods on 
your shoulders, they bow and smile, they coo 
and cackle, they entreat and beseech, they re- 
monstrate and reproach. They will not be 
denied, or take any number of noes for an 
answer. A stony stare over their heads, a deaf 
ear to their wailings, and an undaunted advance 
over their prostrate forms is your only hope. 

The mosques and tombs and palaces of Delhi 
are numerous and beautiful, and serve well to 
educate the eye and prepare the taste for the 
appreciation of that crown and glory of sub- 
lunary architecture which awaits us at Agra, our 
next stopping-place. Among the most interest- 
ing objects at Delhi, there is Humayum's Tomb, 
an imposing structure with two massive stone 
gateways of colossal proportions, and with a 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 239 

splendid dome ; and the beautiful mausoleum of 
the poet Khusrau, called " The Parrot of Persia," 
who lies beneath constantly renewed silken can- 
opies, and is guarded by the faithful with undy- 
ing reverence ; and the sweet resting-place of the 
daughter of Shah Jehan, the heavenly-minded 
Jehanna, whose touching epitaph loses nothing 
of its sweetness with the lapse of years. 

Agra has a thousand charms, and one could 
spend many days there profitably and pleasantly 
in research into the past or more indolent enjoy- 
ment of the present. But I shall only tell you 
of that glory of art whose existence is a wonder 
of the world ; whose charm unites transcendent 
beauty with the melancholy of permanent pathos 
and the tender sweetness of a sentiment that the 
world delights to honor centuries after its memo- 
rial arose. In the Taj Mahal of Shah Jehan, we 
have not only the most exquisite building in the 
world, but one whose meaning has never been 
obscured, whose sweet seclusion recalls the mem- 
ory of the fair woman who sleeps beneath its 
dome. It seems absurd to try to paint this pic- 
ture, but not to try would be an unforgivable 
omission from a record of Indian travel. 

Our first view of the Taj Mahal happened to 
be at an hour regarded as the best for one's first 
impressions, — in the late afternoon. Every- 
thing conspires to prepare you for the final vision 
of beauty. The picturesque drive over an ad- 



240 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

mirable road and through scenes of sylvan fresh- 
ness, the luxuriance of nature, and, at length, the 
stupendous gateway through which you enter 
the immense courtyard (eight hundred and 
eighty feet by four hundred and forty), are each 
and all indications of the splendid consumma- 
tion. Stretching far on either side of the great 
gate, built of red sandstone and surmounted by 
twenty-six white marble cupolas, and really an 
enormous building itself, there extends a noble 
arcade, which forms the caravanserai used dur- 
ing great religious festivals. It supplies the 
countless pilgrims with all that a Hindoo asks 
of an inn, — room to stretch out his bed and 
to say his prayers. Having passed through the 
gate, we enter a garden — and such a garden ! 
A stream of water runs through it, twenty-three 
fountains toss their bright bubbles in the sun- 
lit air, water-lilies rest on the still waters of 
the tanks, which mirror the sky above, and gold 
fishes glide beneath like broken rainbows. Long 
walks over marble pavements or clean-swept 
gravel paths open on every side, the flowers of 
all lands and the trees of every zone thrive as in 
a terrestrial paradise. Slowly you wend your 
way amid all this beauty and freshness and holi- 
ness ; for indeed the place is sacred. Before 
you rises in grace and majesty the peerless pearl 
of architecture, the pure white glory of the Taj 
Mahal. Its full name well befits it. It is the 



A TRANSIT ACEOSS INDIA 241 

Crown Lady's Tomb, erected over the Chosen 
of the Palace. Here Shah Jehan immortalized 
himself, as well as the wife he loved, by building 
(in 1630 A. D.) this grandest of mausoleums in 
these most exquisite surroundings. One has 
always heard of this tomb, and known the rough 
outline of its history ; one has seen many pic- 
tures of it, some of them tawdry, many models 
of it in marble and alabaster ; one has even 
wearied of minute descriptions, which leave only 
a confused and imperfect image ; one has half 
resolved not to join in the universal chorus of 
admiration, and to remain unmoved before it, 
letting others ejaculate and break forth in stilted 
and hackneyed terms of praise ; but when the 
majesty of its proportions, the purity of its out- 
lines, the glory of its dome, and the mighty 
massiveness of its walls, are there before your 
eyes, — the Taj Mahal arises like Aphrodite 
from the sea, cleansed of all foolish flights of 
word eloquence, untouched by hyperbole, superior 
even to devout admiration ; and as a vague wave 
of wonder overwhelms you, it sweeps from your 
memory, as it has swept from the monument it- 
self, the thought of all the useless words that 
have been wasted upon it, and you receive its 
beauty into your soul, new-born and exquisite as 
though no other human eye had ever gazed upon 
it, no other human heart had found it fair. If 
you think I talk wildly, go there and sit in those 



242 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

gardens and open your eyes and your heart as I 
did mine, and you will find, as I have done, the 
fairest vision that ever blest a mortal's sight. 

Shall I mention some of the plain and simple 
facts which, based on fundamental principles 
of pure art, combine to create an edifice which 
not only leads one to enthusiasm, but is able 
to maintain its supremacy with the architect 
and the expert? It may be that Shah Jehan 
builded better than he knew, but there was a 
perfect taste and a perfect knowledge somewhere 
in direction, and it must have been a joy to soften 
imprisonment and a satisfaction to soothe his 
heart, as from his palace prison across the river 
he watched the beauteous dream take tangible 
and well-nigh indestructible form. Seventeen 
years were spent in its construction, and millions 
of rupees were doled out in the scanty wages of 
the innumerable workmen. 

This jewel of architecture stands upon a 
marble-paved and marble-walled platform about 
eighteen feet above the general level of the gar- 
dens before it and sixty feet above the river 
Jumna, which flows behind it. As the feature 
that surprised me most was the grandeur of the 
edifice, I will mention a few of its measurements 
to explain the variety of its charms, which ap- 
peal to one's sense of majesty as well as, on close 
examination, to one's perceptions of the utmost 
delicacy of finish. The platform on which the 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 243 

mausoleum stands is three hundred and thirteen 
feet square ; the building itself is one hundred 
and eighty feet square. The dome which crowns 
it is fifty-eight feet in diameter and eighty in 
height. It resembles a gigantic flower rejoicing 
in the sunlight. Under the centre of the dome, 
enclosed by a trellis-work screen of white marble 
wrought in delicate open arabesques of intricate 
interweavings, are the inlaid sarcophagi of Shah 
Jehan and his beloved wife, Arjmand Banu. 
Here, if nowhere else, she takes precedence of 
her husband, her monument being not only 
larger but much more finely decorated. These 
sarcophagi, however, are not those in which the 
dead repose ; they lie below in a crypt. The 
only light admitted into the peaceful inclosure 
where we stand comes through a marble lattice 
inside, still further tempered by a scarcely less 
elaborate open-work in the outer walls. The 
result is that in the funeral chapel there reigns 
a soft but scarcely dim twilight, which adds 
much to the chastened solemnity of the place. 
The inside decorations are made of the mosaic 
so dear to the oriental taste, which fills all spaces 
with flower-work and arabesques, whether upon 
the inner or the outer walls, and presents a 
miracle of patience and costliness. This profuse 
decoration of such stately buildings especially 
characterizes the work of the Mogul period, and 
won for those princes the reputation of design- 



244 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

ing like Titans and finishing like jewelers. 
Shah Jehan was a great builder, and to him we 
owe the Pearl mosque in the fort at Agra, his 
own beautiful palace there, with its Hall of Audi- 
ence, and many another sumptuous structure. 
But the Taj Mahal surpasses all others. One 
runs the risk, as may be seen, of appearing to 
exaggerate because only superlatives occur to 
the mind when a description is attempted ; but 
to those who have studied it, no language seems 
powerful enough to set forth its charm or to ex- 
plain the hold it obtains upon the imagination 
and the heart, — this gem of art set in a garden 
of Eden, and telling its romance to generation 
after generation as the centuries go by. 

Of Cawnpore and Lucknow I have little space 
to speak, and will come at once to Benares, 
where Nature has done much which man has 
contrived to spoil. If cleanliness is next to god- 
liness, the inhabitants of Benares must be 
the most heathenish creatures in the world. 
Magnificently situated on the Ganges, endowed 
with temples and traditions which make it the 
sacred city of the Hindoos, it reeks with filth, it 
overflows with degradation, it shames every 
sense, and revolts every heart. The salvation 
supposed to flow in the Ganges is befouled 
with corruption; the idols surpass in coarse 
hideousness all that we have seen before, and 
its holiest temples are approachable only through 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 245 

slums of inconceivable and indescribable nasti- 
ness. The devotees descend in hundreds to the 
river ; they bathe amid the refuse of the mar- 
kets ; they wash their garments, their dogs and 
their pots and pans therein ; and after much 
gossiping and plunging about, they drink deep 
draughts from the turbid water for the purifica- 
tion of their souls. At the Burning Ghat the 
corpses are said to be burned only as long as 
the wood purchased at an exorbitant price holds 
out ; the scorched bodies are then thrown into 
the river still further to pollute the water. 
Meanwhile awaiting the scorching they lie on 
the ground till the careless officials choose to 
give them attention. The Monkey Temple is 
overrun with monkeys that look as if they were 
a thousand years old and had learned new 
malice with every year of their existence ; the 
dingy priests, the unclean garland-weavers ; the 
frightful idols, and the sacred cows are muddled 
into an indiscriminate mass, and the prayers 
which may start heavenward are drawn back to 
earth upon altars degraded by pollution and 
superstition. The ancient glory of the Sacred 
City is no more — it is a place to look at hastily 
and leave in disgust. In the recollection long 
afterwards it is possible to recall the loveliness 
of. the sky, the picturesqueness of the shores, 
and the tarnished splendor of many of the 
ancient buildings, but one must have time to 



246 A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 

recover from the immediately overwhelming im- 
pressions of the city of Benares and its abomi- 
nations. 

As if to rebuke an unbeliever in the sanctity 
of the present generation of Hindoos, we were 
allowed to see and honestly admire a saintly 
hermit whose pure life is testimony to better 
possible results from the same teachings differ- 
ently understood. We stopped before a small 
door, in an otherwise dead wall, which opened 
and admitted us into a lovely garden, with gay 
flowers and branching trees and running water, 
pure as from a mountain spring. This garden 
is the abode of a very learned and pious man, 
one who has " attained Buddha," and whose 
shrine for worship has already been erected 
during his life. He responded courteously to 
our request for an audience, and came to meet 
us with outstretched hands. If ever man bore 
full saintship on his countenance it was this 
sweet and gentle being. Spiritual peace was 
as an atmosphere around him ; his usual cos- 
tume is that of Adam before the fall, but (prob- 
ably in deference to Western prejudices) on 
this occasion he had wrapped a square of soft 
matting around his emaciated shoulders, wear- 
ing it with the dignity of a Roman toga. He 
is a well-known Brahmin of the highest caste, 
a learned Pundit familiar with all sacred 
lore, and in frequent correspondence with our 



A TRANSIT ACROSS INDIA 247 

own clergymen and philosophers. His name is 
Bhascra Miind Sharaee. He gave us a flower 
apiece, and divided an orange among us, and 
though no common tongue could be spoken by 
us, we understood his friendly words without our 
interpreter. He showed us some letters urging 
him to attend the congress of nations at Chicago. 
In the half hour of our interview the anger we 
had felt at the degradation of a people faded 
away, and the glimpse of a pure and naked soul 
dwelling unsullied by earthly stains in a place 
like that we had just seen redeemed even Be- 
nares from utter condemnation. 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 

Jaffa enjoys the almost unique distinction 
of being a seaport without a harbor — a fre- 
quent stopping place for ships, without a haven 
for their shelter. The sea runs high at all 
times, and vessels are often detained for days, 
unable to land passengers or freight. Our own 
steamer, although we left Alexandria so early 
that we reached Jaffa in the late afternoon, kept 
slowly on her way up the coast for another 
hundred miles (it was said at the expense of a 
thousand dollars), and returned to Jaffa next 
morning. We were even then landed under 
adverse circumstances, and a steamer that ar- 
rived a few hours later was beating about in 
the offing for two days, when her passengers 
came to our hotel with doleful stories of their 
experiences. 

It was about nine in the morning when we 
were told to hurry up to get on shore while the 
tide served. Passengers are always being hur- 
ried up on journeys, and the timid and the 
good-natured obey the order with alacrity, only 
to wait wearily for the lazy and the laggard. 
We took one of the early boats, and were soon 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 249 

upon the briskly bounding billows. A few 
harmless-looking clouds partially obscured the 
sun, but to the inexperienced only added to the 
beauty of the scene. Before we had accom- 
plished half our distance the weather and the 
waves took possession of us, and treated us in a 
most inhospitable manner. The windows of 
heaven opened upon us from above, the rushing 
waters gathered against us from below ; the rain 
soaked us, the sea drenched us, and we emerged 
from under the salt breakers only to be pelted 
by the fresh-water showers. These two sources 
of supply soon filled the bottom of the boat for 
a foot-bath, the seats for a sitz-bath, and the 
shedding power of our uplifted umbrellas for a 
shower-bath. I have never seen a more com- 
plete hydropathic experiment. 

A sorry-looking group were we as we were 
literally fished up by the brawny arms of the 
men who manage, with a skill born of long ex- 
perience, to pull passengers out of a rocking 
boat over a slippery mass of sea-weed to a rough 
stone pier. It really takes a few minutes of 
reflection, after these crowded experiences, to 
resume our individuality and recover the use of 
our limbs. 

And so we landed, a drenched and discour- 
aged crowd. Our umbrellas had served no pur- 
pose, save more skillfully to direct the errant 
streams to the back of our neighbor's neck. 



250 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 

The big waves had mashed us into a compact 
mass of shivering humanity. The pelting rain 
continued, but at least we were free from the 
cataracts of salt water. Our trials were not yet 
over. We were obliged to walk over a rough 
pathway in the outskirts of the town, and across 
narrow lanes, which apparently serve as sewers 
for all its filth. This accumulates in dry weather, 
and when a flood like that which was descend- 
ing upon us comes, the mass is swept along in 
great quantities, or swashed about in a way that 
baffles description. When we reached the better 
streets, we found carriages, and drove the rest 
of the way to the station. Here we had time to 
examine the extent of the damage incurred dur- 
ing our warfare with the elements. The car we 
captured assumed a very odd appearance as the 
dripping garments were hung on pegs or spread 
in all directions. My fur coat looked like a 
drowned puppy, but I suppose I looked like an- 
other. For a little while we were all very forlorn, 
but the sun soon came forth like a bridegroom 
from his chamber, the tardy passengers arrived, 
cheerfulness was restored, and we started for 
Jerusalem. It was a leisurely journey. We 
stopped often, and, save for our chilly dampness, 
not unwillingly. The scenery was picturesque 
in outline. Everything about us, except the 
freshly blossoming flowers, which spangled the 
fields, spoke of the past rather than of the pre- 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 251 

sent, and of a sad and dilapidated past. Bril- 
liant scarlet poppies and many other wild flowers 
smiled upon us in every direction, and seemed 
to say that there was still something of fresh- 
ness and beauty in the neglected wastes of the 
Holy Land of Palestine, and that the far-off 
naked hills and rocky slopes frowned down in 
vain. We had ample time to observe them all, 
for we were five hours in going over the forty 
miles between Jaffa and Jerusalem, which shows 
how slowly a railway train can go. 

Jaffa is worth seeing, but was out of our itin- 
erary. It has a famous history, and has borne 
several different names, as Joppa, Jaffa, Ya- 
ap-pu, Yafa, etc. It belonged to the land of 
the Philistines. Andromeda was, as we all 

i 

know, bound to a rock in this vicinity, and 
would have been devoured but for the arrival, 
just in time, of the gallant Perseus. Her chains 
are said to have hung on the rock for many 
years. The Prophet Jonah also had just left 
Joppa when he was swallowed by the whale, as 
there was no hero at hand to rescue him. Joppa 
was the place where Hiram of Tyre landed the 
timbers of the cedars of Lebanon for the build- 
ing of Solomon's temple. Vespasian destroyed it 
as a nest of pirates, and it was nearly obliter- 
ated several times, and saw much hard fighting. 
Its chief claim now is on account of the fifteen 
thousand pilgrims that pass through it annually. 



252 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 

There are many convents, monasteries, and chap- 
els, and in the Armenian monastery is pointed 
out the room in which tradition declares that 
Napoleon poisoned his prisoners. At this point 
of the journey we first see the pure Semitic cast 
of countenance, the Hebrew of the Hebrews. 

Everywhere around us are evidences of an- 
tiquity and long occupation of the land. In- 
deed, much of it looked as if it were weary of 
the human race, and the quarrels continually 
disturbing its peace. Wretched towns and 
squalid villages shelter a crowded population 
of hook-nosed men and pitiful-looking women, 
and the whole scene proclaims that the ancient 
glory has departed, perhaps never to return. 
We pass over the possessions of the Philistines 
of old, and finally reach Jerusalem. 

The streets through which we drove were 
fairly conditioned, and we drew up at the New 
Grand Hotel. Think of that in a city that 
Jesus wished to gather under his wing! But 
the truly majestic walls and towers of the holy 
city are so venerable and dignified that one is 
reconciled to some of the modern improvements 
which conduce to the traveler's comfort. In 
Jerusalem, of all places, one desires to be free 
from discomfort in order to abandon one's seK 
to the associations of the mighty past. 

One would like to feel only one's very best 
emotions in entering the sacred inclosure of 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 253 

Jerusalem, and to be elevated, for a while at 
least, above sublunary cares and earthly weak- 
nesses. But exhausted nature claimed indul- 
gence, and rest and food seemed the only things 
to be thought of or desired. Dinner and sleep 
shut out the spiritual cravings, and not until 
next morning was it possible to revive our his- 
torical associations, or our reverence for this 
most holy city. 

The morning light, however, brought renewal 
of our better nature, and to be in Jerusalem was 
once more a privilege to be prized and an oppor- 
tunity to be eagerly welcomed. But, first of all 
the sacred places to be visited is Bethlehem, and 
we were soon on the way. The drive is pictur- 
esque, with quaint features from time to time, 
but the country is evidently yielding to modern 
influences and acquiring modern ideas. We 
left the city by the Jaffa Gate, which is usually 
crowded with busy tourists and busier beggars. 
Itinerant peddlers swarm in all directions here 
as elsewhere. The road through the Valley of 
Hinnom leads past the railway station on one 
side, and the Hill of Evil Counsel on the other, 
also within view of a spurious House of Caiaphas. 
You understand that in sightseeing, as in other 
branches of business, the supply must meet the 
demand, and if there is not enough of the genu- 
ine article the spurious must be called on to 
supply the deficiency. For a further instance 



254 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 

you are shown the tree on which Judas hung 
himself, a certain verisimilitude being present in 
the fact that this tree extends several horizontal 
branches, offering a free hospitality to a man 
thinking of suicide. Small villages, and settle- 
ments of many nationalities, dot the way. A 
Roman Catholic convent elbows an Arabian 
hamlet; a Greek settlement turns up its nose 
at both by claiming to be the House of Simeon. 
We behold a well which we are expected to be- 
lieve is that from which the Holy Family once 
drank. The varying traditions and rival dates 
often get mixed, and produce a sad muddle in 
the mind of the reverent traveler, upon whose 
brain too much information is poured at once. 
Soon we come to the Hill of Peas, so-called be- 
cause Jesus asked a farmer what he was sowing ; 
the man curtly replied " Stones." In conse- 
quence of his rudeness the poor hill has to bear 
" peas of stone " f orevermore, but as all the other 
hills hereabout bear a similar crop, the curse 
seems less individual in its application. 

Far away may be seen a glimpse of the Dead 
Sea, like a silver edge to the horizon. The 
Tomb of Rachel is such a flagrant bit of Mo- 
hammedan architecture that even here we blush 
for its name. It is, however, much revered, and 
visited by pilgrims, " Muslims, Christians, and 
Jews, and the Bedouins bring their dead to be 
buried here." Bethlehem means " the place of 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 255 

bread," or " of food," owing its name to the fact 
that it has a more fertile surrounding country 
than other villages. Aside from its deepest in- 
terest, it is the scene of the sweet story of Kuth, 
and famous as the home of the family of David. 
Constantino, Justinian, and the Crusaders have 
all been here before us, and have befogged its 
later history. 

We are well above the sea here, — twenty- 
five hundred feet, — and the town of eight 
thousand inhabitants stands on two hills. It 
lives chiefly on its interesting past, but still con- 
sents to serve as a market-town for the surround- 
ing region. The church of St. Mary is built 
on the spot where Christ was born, and is the 
joint property of Greeks, Latins, and Armenians. 
The architecture proves it of early Christian 
date. We are by this time very glad of a genu- 
ine antiquity, for it disturbs the reverent remem- 
brance of Scripture to find a Greek monastery, 
a chapel of St. Nicholas, a church of St. Cath- 
erine, an Armenian monastery, and a host of 
other comparatively modern localities close to- 
gether, not only in space, but also in the rever- 
ence of the public. One is almost driven into 
absolute disbelief in them all. We must also 
purchase rosaries, and crosses and pious em- 
blems of many sorts, or appear, even to our- 
selves, extremely hard hearted. 

On Christmas day, 1101, Baldwin was 



256 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 

crowned king of Jerusalem in this cliurcli. Its 
whole history is interesting, and many monarchs 
have piously restored it, and passed on. Oddly 
enough it was Napoleon III. who procured per- 
mission in 1852 for the Latin race to enter it 
after long exclusion. It is full of associations, 
and well worthy of study ; but we cannot pause 
for that. We hasten down a staircase to the 
chapel of the Nativity, which is lighted by thirty- 
two lamps ; the right to keep them burning is 
divided among the different sects. The pave- 
ment is of marble, the walls of masonry. Under 
the altar a silver star is set in the pavement with 
a Latin inscription, stating that Christ was born 
there. Opposite are three steps which lead to 
the chapel of the manger. The manger, in 
which Jesus is declared to have lain, is of 
marble, the front brown, the bottom white ; a 
wax doll represents the infant. The genuine 
manger is said to have been carried to Rome by 
the Empress Helena. We are underground 
here, of course, and the idea seems to be that 
the caverns, natural or artificial, were used as 
stables. So far as you have yet seen this is 
plausible, but a doubtful passage now leads to 
five more descending steps, and you are in the 
Chapel of the Innocents, where Herod is said to 
have killed children concealed here by their 
mothers. We returned to Jerusalem in the 
early afternoon. 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 257 

Walking through the usual narrow ill-paved 
passages, crowded with small shops and a mass of 
human beings, to the Mosque of Omar, we were 
overtaken by a heavy shower which came sud- 
denly upon us. There was no available shelter, 
and our guide proved as stupid as he was dirty. 
There is so much real interest attaching to every 
foot of the spot where Solomon's temple actu- 
ally stood, that the rain was disregarded. The 
Holy Rock must be genuine. Christian tradi- 
tion, as usual, runs parallel with Mussulman 
facts — the temple was sacred to Jehovah — the 
equally beautiful mosque is sacred to Allah and 
his Prophet. The central ideal spot is the Sa- 
cred Rock, now inclosed in the interior of the 
octagon mosque, and surrounded by a low rail- 
ing. It is fifty-eight feet long, forty-four wide, 
and rises about six and a half feet above the 
pavement. The earliest reference to it is in the 
Talmud, which proves the antiquity of its sacred 
character. Abraham was on the point of slay- 
ing Isaac here. The Ark of the Covenant rested 
here, and it was regarded as the very central 
spot of the world. The sacred rock is supposed 
to be the site of the altar of burnt offerings, 
which was outside the sanctuary. The dome of 
the mosque is fine, and the whole effect of the 
interior is dignified, solemn, and yet very decor- 
ative. 

The extensive inclosure, within which stand 



258 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 

the Mosque of Omar and the Mosque of El- 
Aksa, is entered through seven gates, bearing 
each its especial name, as the gate of abkition, 
the chain gate, the prison gate, the gate of the 
seraglio, etc. There are many small buildings 
scattered about for various uses, as well as 
mounds for prayer and fountains for ablution. 
Mohammed was very reverent towards Jerusa- 
lem, and it stands next to Mecca in the estima- 
tion of his followers. It was for this reason that 
Christians were so long excluded from it. 

On the holy rock was written the unspeakable 
name of God. Jesus was able to read it and so 
to perform miracles. Abraham, David, and Sol- 
omon all came here to pray in a cavern below 
the rock, and Mohammed left the impression of 
his head on the rocky ceiling. Perhaps he re- 
ceived an impression on his head in return. He 
declared that one prayer offered here was worth 
one thousand prayers offered anywhere else. It 
was in the course of his own direct journey to 
heaven, to obtain his revelation, that he made the 
round hole in the roof. 

The octagon with its lofty dome was for a while 
believed to be the veritable temple of Solomon, 
and the Knights Templar took their name as 
" The Order of the Temple " from it. It appears 
in the painting by Raphael of the '' Marriage of 
the Virgin." 

Let us go back to daily present life by a don- 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 259 

key ride to David's tomb, which does not need a 
long string of stories to embellish it. The rides 
outside the walls are delio^htful and brino^ back 
a sense of reality and cheerfulness to those who 
are at once amused and pained at the extraordi- 
nary narratives glibly recited by the guides. I 
quote here from the guide-book, which all travel- 
ers should read, the following, " From a religious 
point of view, the impressions a traveler receives 
in Jerusalem are anything but pleasant. The 
native Christians of all sorts are by no means 
equal to their task, the bitter war which rages 
among them Is carried on with very foul weapons, 
and the contempt with which the^Orthodox Jews 
and Mohammedans look down on the Christians 
is only too well deserved." 

The walls of Jerusalem are about forty feet 
high, and add greatly to the picturesqueness of 
the general view. From the Mount of Olives 
especially the effect is much enhanced, and In 
riding over the narrow and Irregular pathways 
just beneath these walls there Is more of the im- 
pression produced which a reverent mind wishes 
to receive than In any other spot that the trav- 
eler visits. The heavens above and the earth 
beneath have not been fatally desecrated by su- 
perstition and fanaticism. 

The domestic architecture of the city Is pecu- 
liar. A dwelling-house consists of a variety of 
separate apartments, over each of which there is 



260 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 

a dome-shaped roof. Sometimes there is over 
this dome another roof, which is flat and is util- 
ized as a promenade or a garden. But the chief 
feature of the whole structure is the cistern in 
the court, for the absence of the usual water 
supply of a city makes it necessary to collect all 
the water which falls directly from the clouds. 
" In some of the houses there are no glass win- 
dows, and chimneys are by no means universal." 
The floors are of cement and the older houses 
are heated only by braziers filled with lighted 
charcoal. The cistern water is said to be safe 
and palatable when the cistern itself is kept 
clean. 

The number of Jews in Palestine steadily in- 
creases, but a large proportion of them are sup- 
ported by the charity of their European brethren 
and they are not a thrifty people. They have 
about seventy synagogues. The list of worship- 
ing places includes almost every nationality, and 
presents a wonderful medley of contradictory 
opinions. In order to obtain any definite im- 
pression of the mosques and other buildings 
which cover the ground once occupied by the 
temple, it is necessary to study the careful de- 
scriptions to be found in books. In fact, every- 
where in Jerusalem it is desirable frequently to 
consult authorities of many sorts if hopeless 
confusion is to be avoided. There are so many 
points of interest, and the examination of each 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 261 

so leads to an increased imaginative charm in 
the others, that time fails both in seeing and in 
describing. We visit the House of Pilate, and 
the Armenian church, the church of St. Anne, 
and the Golden Gate. We glance over the new 
church of the Redeemer recently dedicated with 
much pomp by the Kaiser, and roam from one 
epoch to another and from the most reverent 
to the most skeptical emotions. 

The Via Dolorosa or "way of pain," over 
which Jesus dragged his heavy cross, can never 
be followed without a thrill of sympathetic re- 
membrance. Its stations are indicated by tab- 
lets in the walls. At the third station Christ 
sank under the weight of the cross, at the fourth 
he met his mother, at the fifth Simon took the 
cross from him, and so on in the sad story. In 
fact, sadness becomes the prevailing emotion as 
one takes up the thread of history. You turn 
sadly from one neglected spot to another, and 
feel almost as much distressed at the tawdry 
over-decoration of others. 

You can see the chamber of the Last Supper, 
you can put your face against the grand old wall 
and wail with the pilgrims over the lost glory of 
Jerusalem, or you can explore the more modern 
churches, convents, and sacred places, that re- 
call the wide divisions which make a battle- 
ground of religious worship. It is pitiful that 
Christians should have rent the teachings of 



262 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 

Christ as the Eoman soldiers rent his gar- 
ments. 

As an antidote to the exhaustion caused by too 
heavy demands on our mental digestion, the 
donkey rides already spoken of are the only real 
remedy. The narrow paths meander about, the 
ancient walls are wonderfully impressive, the 
scenery is quaintly dreary, the sky is blue and 
very far above, the silence is restful, and a 
renewal of reverence aids us to resist the 
thickly crowding absurdities from which we have 
emerged. The Mount of Olives is full of a sad 
appeal, Bethany shows us the deep hole in the 
hill-side from which Lazarus must have found it 
hard to scramble even at the call of his Master, 
and so we are once more under thrall of super- 
stition. 

The Pool of Siloam where sweet the lily once 
grew is now a mass of rubbish ; the tombs of the 
kings are neighbors to the Tomb of Absalom and 
that of Jehoshaphat is on the way. And there is 
the Well of Mary where Mary washed the swad- 
dling clothes of little Jesus, the sight of which 
brings back our kindly feeling, and we vouch- 
safe a glance also at Job's well, and refuse to 
wonder how they happened to be so close to- 
gether. 

The drive from Jerusalem to Jericho and the 
Dead Sea is one never to be forgotten, and, 
in many respects, never to be paralleled. It 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 263 

is an epitome of Palestine, — its scenery, its 
poetry, its associations, its dignity, and its pa- 
thos. The grand sweep of its heaven-kissing 
hills ; the sombre gloom of its deep ravines ; 
the smile of the sunshine that gilds by turns 
the tiny oases of green and the huge masses 
of rock and sand, form a picture alike impres- 
sive and unique. The silence which broods 
over the vast landscape ; the scarcity of human 
and animal life upon it ; the narrow road which 
traverses it, and connects its past desertness 
with its present readoption into the living world, 
— all combine with its sacred associations to 
stimulate the imagination and arouse the emo- 
tions of the traveler. 

The gray solemnity of the Dead Sea impresses 
one with a vague sadness, as of an extinct exist- 
ence, and we turn to the sweet peace of the 
ford of the Jordan, and bless God that the scene 
of baptismal consecration has never lost its gra- 
cious beauty, but offers perennial renewal to the 
still waters, and the waving trees, and the shin- 
ing sands. It is in this especial region that the 
scriptural narrative asserts its power over the 
heart, and the dream of piety becomes the 
assured and glorified fact of history. And 
when, as evening drew on, we turned from the 
contemplation of this picture to the quaint white- 
ness of the little inn, and watched from our win- 
dows the setting of the sun, and the rising of the 



264 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 

moon, and the serene on-going of the night hours, 
a great calm took possession of soul and body, 
and dreamless sleep brought welcome rest. 

The gates and towers of Jerusalem are all the 
more interesting, because their traditions smack 
less of superstition. The walls are really vener- 
able, and were evidently a strong defense against 
all early weapons of war. The mellowed creamy 
tint, the battlemented towers, the clinging weeds 
and climbing vines that get occasional foothold, 
the great height above the path at their feet, all 
have a charm and a reality. In fact there is a 
subtle and daily increasing fascination in this 
scenery and in this atmosphere. The gently 
undulating slopes, the wide and sandy waste 
places, strewn with millions of loose stones, and 
with promise of millions more beneath the sur- 
face, the sharp cut outlines of the distant hills, 
and the far-stretching roads, the exhausted soil, 
the calm of ended effort, the indifference to 
modern improvement, unite with that shadowy 
remembrance of Scripture which nearly all tour- 
ists possess, and which becomes more distinct 
as the days go by, to make Jerusalem redeem 
itself from tawdry tales and false traditions 
when one stands before its walls or wanders 
through the valleys which surround it. St. 
Stephen's gate resumes its tragic interest, and 
the Damascus gate whispers that at least St. 
Paul was real. 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 265 

I have purposely left the church o£ the Holy- 
Sepulchre and its many adjuncts till the close 
of my very imperfect sketch. That and the 
Garden of Gethsemane must be treated with an 
indulgence towards degrading influences, a pa- 
tience towards unworthy superstitions, a charity 
towards human excitability and ferocity of reli- 
gious faith, that are not forthcoming in civil- 
ized human breasts at the first demand, but 
which ultimately chasten the judgment and 
soften criticism. 

Any one who has seen a photograph of the 
Garden of Gethsemane will need no descrip- 
tion of its profane and trivial treatment. Yet 
we bring away a sprig of evergreen, a tiny blos- 
som, a shining leaf, with the hope that when we 
have left the spot itself behind us the remem- 
brance of it may again resume those colors with 
which a pious faith has always painted it, and 
that even now, when twilight steals over it, it 
may be more worthy to have witnessed the agony 
of Jesus. The garden is in the custody of the 
Franciscans. Here the disciples slept, here Ju- 
das gave the traitorous kiss, and here Jesus 
gathered fresh strength under the midnight 
heaven. There are a few venerable olive-trees 
which do their best to redeem the modern 
flower beds. The oil from them is sold at a 
high price, and rosaries are made of the wood. 

The church of the Sepulchre, called also the 



266 FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 

Anastasis, because Christ rose from the dead 
here, has such a tremendous history that ordi- 
nary records fail to chronicle all its claims to 
religious homage. Near it is the supposed site 
o:^ Golgotha ; beneath its roof the tomb of Christ 
was discovered by the Empress Helena in the 
third century. The true cross was also revealed 
to her in a dream. A sumptuously decorated 
church was dedicated here in a. d. 336. The 
usual sieges and destroyals by barbarians fol- 
lowed, but in 1099 the Crusaders marched into 
a splendid reconstruction, ''bare-footed, and 
with songs of praise." Again destroyed, again 
restored, desecrated, and reconstructed, so goes 
the tale. I can best describe it by enumerating 
the places it is declared to embrace : the Chapel 
of Melchizedek, Armenian Chapel, Coptic 
Chapel, Chapel of Mary of Egypt, Greek 
Church of St. James, Chapel of Mary Magda- 
lene, Church of the Forty Martyrs, Stone of 
Anointment, Place from which the Woman wit- 
nessed the Anointment, Angel's Chapel, Chapel 
of the Sepulchre, Chapel of the Syrians, Cham- 
ber of the Rock, Passage to the Coptic Monas- 
tery, to the Cistern, Chapel of the Apparition, 
Latin Sacristy, Chapel Prison of Christ, Chapel 
of the Parting of the Raiment, of the Derision, 
Altar of the Penitent Thief, Chapel of the 
Agony, Abyssinian Chapel, and so on to the 
number of forty. 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM 267 

The stone of anointment is a reddish marble 
slab eight and a half feet by four feet ; it was 
placed there in 1808 — it has often been 
changed. 

In the rotunda is the sepulchre. It stands 
on the old foundations, but was rebuilt in 1810 
and again in 1868, The hanging lamps which 
light the various shrines are divided among the 
different sects, and jealously claimed by them. 
Soldiers pace up and down in the Armenian 
Chapel to prevent the members of the Greek 
Church from stepping on their sacred floors. 
But the air thickens with superstition — let us 
leave it unbreathed. 

Only outside the walls is the air pure, the sky 
serene ; there the thousands of graves are silent 
beneath their crumbling stones, generations have 
come and gone over this forlorn country, each 
with its quarrels and its unchristian Christian- 
ity. The olive-trees shiver under their over- 
loaded memories. The sacred places groan 
beneath the heavy tread of ignorant or careless 
feet. We turn back to the Scripture readings 
of our childhood and slowly revive our rever- 
ence, renew our philanthropy, and remember 
that Jesus loved even such people as these who 
now inhabit his country and dishonor his name. 



EGYPT: ITS ART, ITS HISTOEY, ITS 
FASCINATION 

The phrase "• Egyptian Darkness " has long 
been shorn of its old significance, and there is 
perhaps no other country which at the present 
day is placed under a stronger light of research 
than Egypt, or which has received more atten- 
tion from the public. Scientific curiosity has 
lighted there a torch, whose flame is more bril- 
liant than that of the magnesium wire where- 
with travelers explore her pyramids and her 
tombs, and in its glare the most remote monu- 
ments reveal their history, the stones by. the 
wayside translate their hieroglyphics, and buried 
cities yield up the treasures which the sands 
have so long jealously hidden. I may not add 
to the knowledge which my reader possesses of 
the country, but I shall be well pleased if I can 
convey some impression of the charm of its at- 
mosphere, of the shimmering vastness of its 
shining sands, of the solemn stillness of its van- 
ished empires. There, as elsewhere, history is 
written in works of art ; there, as elsewhere, 
that art was born of the surroundings accessible 
to the imagination of its artists ; and the fea- 



EGYPT 269 

tares of the landscape on which we look to-day 
are in harmony with the monuments created by 
those who gazed upon it centuries ago. The air 
which expands the lungs of the traveler in Egypt 
now is fraught with a mysterious fragrance as of 
myriads of faded flowers ; the sunshine which 
glorifies the noonday sky has blest the land with 
the beneficence of uncounted harvests ; the very 
ground beneath our feet is the dust of extinct na- 
tions ; and the sombre midnight heavens gloom 
above us like the pall beneath which " Ozyman- 
dias, king of kings " slept his last sleep. 

What I have to say about Egypt is the result 
of several visits to that country under constantly 
increasing enthusiasm concerning it, and an 
equally increasing conviction that in that land 
are to be found health and renewal for wearied 
nerves, sick hearts, and exhausted vitality. The 
restfulness of the air, the stillness of the desert, 
the serenity of the sky, and the ever present 
sense of a mighty past long laid at rest, all 
combine to soothe the soul and to quiet a too 
eager spirit by correcting the measurements 
which prevail where the activities and the per- 
plexities of the absorbing present obscure the 
judgment and harass the heart. Therefore the 
country that impresses my mind with the highest 
meaning, my imagination with the grandest sug- 
gestions, and my heart with the profoundest 
interest, is Egypt, and it is none the less inter- 



270 EGYPT 

esting because it kept its secrets from the world 
so long. Therefore, also, I desire to utter from 
my own heart that which may similarly impress 
others ; to transfer my enthusiasm of seeing to 
their enthusiasm of hearing. I would fain be- 
come the medium through which the Sphinx 
may offer greeting ; the Nile may hint at the 
secrets of its mysterious flow ; the sunsets may 
impart a glimpse of their amber splendors ; and 
Egypt, as a whole, may appear what it will 
always be for me — a land of exhaustless 
beauty, of ever-varying interest, and of supreme 
fascination. 

There is always strong sympathy between true 
national art and the scenery and the social sur- 
roundings which environ and educate the artist. 
To the Venetian it gave color born of the sun- 
set, and the glowing noonday and the sparkling 
water ; to the Florentine, reared amid the strife 
of factions and the clash of arms, it gave the 
terrors of the last judgment ; to the cloistered 
monk walking among the lilies of his garden, or 
praying in the midnight silence of his cell, it 
brought the gentle face of the Virgin or the 
beatific vision of the heavenly host. On a larger 
scale it brings to the Englishman the pictures 
of rural life or the record of historic greatness ; 
to the Russian it fills the imagination with dark 
deeds of despotism, and the horrors of Siberian 
exile. So to the Egyptian, who gazed upon the 



EGYPT 271 

calm flowing of the beneficent Nile, wlio saw the 
sun set in soft splendor behind the Libyan hills, 
which lightly ripple the distant horizon, and 
scarcely interrupt the majestic pathway to an 
illimitable West, there must have come from the 
ever-shifting hills of sand, and the annual in- 
creasing and diminishing of the great river a 
suggestion of the necessity for something more 
stable which could resist those changes and rise 
above those plains. It was inevitable that he 
should heap together masses huge enough to 
serve as permanent landmarks in the wind- 
swept desert, and lift the slender obelisk above 
the storms of sand. The pyramids and the tem- 
ples tell of gigantic resistance to time and 
change, and the vast spaces of unyielding stone, 
thns furnished, supplied opportunity for the ex- 
pression of another element in the Egyptian 
character — its love of glory. All of those 
spaces were utilized for telling their exploits to 
the world, and repeating the names of their 
kings and great men. 

Upon the threshold of Egypt stands the 
ancient city of Alexandria of which it has 
been said " the history of Alexandria is half the 
intellectual history of the world for nine hun- 
dred years." Commercially it retains great im- 
portance, but for the tourist it is merely the 
gate-way to the land beyond. A glance at its 
antiquities and we pass on. Pompey's Pillar 



272 EGYPT 

has looked down for two thousand years upon 
the struggle o£ rival creeds and rival empires. 
Greek and Roman, Turk and Arab, Infidel and 
Christian, Jew and Moslem, have each struggled 
at its foot ; and in the city where Csesar and 
Bonaparte triumphed it remains the one memo- 
rial which has survived the British occupation. 
But the antiquity and the experience of Pom- 
pey's Pillar are eclipsed by the older and 
grander monuments with which the Egypt that 
awaits us is so richly adorned. 

With all its many changes of dynasties and 
peoples, and with a history that reads like a 
romance, we involuntarily think of it as one 
immense, continuous whole. Its individuality as 
a country is as vivid as that of the grand colos- 
sus of Eameses, wherever we come upon his ma- 
jestic images, guarding his temples or engraved 
on the walls that bear witness to his military 
renown. The English writer, Milner, has well 
said, " Amidst countless changes Egypt retains 
one unchanging attitude. Alike in its greatness 
and in its impotence, in prosperity and in ruin ; 
whether split up among a number of petty rulers 
or united under one gigantic despotism ; whether 
prostrate before the fantastic images of a thou- 
sand gods, or plunged in fanatical devotion to 
a Divine Unity of which any image is a dese- 
cration, Egypt remains unalterably, eternally 
abnormal." 



EGYPT 273 

The journey of one hundred and thirty-one 
miles to Cairo is interesting to a newcomer but 
without striking features. The soft airs of Egypt 
begin to fill the lungs with oxygen and the 
influences of the land to soothe the senses. To 
those who have enjoyed it before it comes with 
the welcome due to an old friend. As we ap- 
proach the city the grand landmarks of the pyra- 
mids on one hand and the minarets of Mehemet 
Ali on the other rise above the horizon level. 
But before studying in detail the features of the 
landscape, which will grow upon your imagina- 
tion and imprint itself on your memory ever 
deeper and deeper, I would like to say something 
of the main character of the art in which this 
country of all countries expressed its imagina- 
tive power, its religious faith, and its wonderful 
mechanical and manual dexterity. 

The most immediately apparent peculiarity 
of Egyptian architecture is the mammoth scale 
of its construction. The massiveness of its 
masonry has resisted the adverse action of ages, 
while the symmetrical management of its huge 
blocks of stone is proof that, although multi- 
tudes of workmen may have worn out their lives 
in combined effort, their strength would have 
been useless but for the aid of mechanical con- 
trivances of a high order. No amount of labor 
ever deterred these people, no obstacle was re- 
garded as insuperable. If it is a temple the 



274 EGYPT 

vastness of its area is paralleled by the number 
and solidity of its pillars and the grandeur of its 
gates. If it is a tomb, no mountain rock is 
deemed impenetrable, no subterranean gallery 
too intricate ; if it is a statue it must be so colos- 
sal that it may be seen from afar sitting serenely 
on the broad, broad plain, its rough-hewn hands 
resting upon its mighty knees, its brow kissed 
by the rising sun, its feet bathed in the shadows 
of the valley. So, too, the Sphinx, with solemn 
and mysterious face, must rise above the sands 
which bury a temple at its base, and agile Arabs 
may climb its monstrous brow and tired travelers 
rest in the grateful shadow of its chin. To make 
manifest to future generations the grandeur of 
its monarchs, the Egyptians built the pyramids 
in mocking rivalry of the distant summits, or 
caused gallery after gallery to wind its slow 
length into the bowels of the mountain to find a 
safe resting-place for the royal corpse. These 
characteristics make a deep impression on the 
imagination and add to the sense of solemnity 
which has been previously awakened by the 
vastness of the hushed landscape, the silence of 
the desert expanse, and the unclouded glory of 
the azure heavens. There is no levity apparent 
in any direction, for even the most grotesque 
hieroglyphics w^ould rebuke a smile ; there is no 
excitement save that of the intellect at the prob- 
lems it meets ; the immensity of the past is more 



EGYPT 275 

to us than the pettiness of the present ; and we 
are more in the presence of the dead than of the 
living. There is nothing trivial, for these ruins 
are those of mighty dynasties which fell to dust 
before our era had begun. 

As the Nile is the mainspring of the material 
prosperity of Egypt, so it must always have 
been an important factor in those results which 
are the outcome of inward meditation, educa- 
tional association, and spiritual aspiration, — in 
other words, of all those things which combine 
to elevate and individualize a nation. Perhaps 
nowhere are its subtle suggestion better set forth 
than in the sonnet of Leigh Hunt, which I ven- 
ture to quote : — 

THE NILE 

It flows throTig-h old hushed Egypt and its sands 

Like a grave, mighty thought, threading a dream, 

And times and things as in that vision seem 

Keeping along it their eternal stands ; — 

Caves, pillars, pyramids, — the shepherd bands 

That roamed through the young earth, — the glory extreme 

Of high Sesostris and the Southern beam, 

The laughing queen that caught the world's great hands I 

Then comes a mightier silence stern and strong 

As of a world left empty of its throng — 

And the void weighs on us ; and then we wake 

To hear the frightful stream lapsing along 

'Twixt villages ; — and think how we shall take 

Our own calm journey on for human sake. 

It is to this river, so poetical in its serene 
breadth, so beneficent in its ministrations, so 



276 EGYPT 

beautiful in its palm-crowned banks, so grand 
in its temple ruins — yet so terrible in its cruelty 
when it withholds its waters from the budding 
grain, so mysterious in its birth-place among the 
untrodden recesses of the far-off mountains, so 
grotesque in its animals, from the awkward 
camel, likened to a soul in purgatory, or the 
lazy gaping crocodile sprawling in the sun, to 
the clumsy hippopotamus that wallows in the 
mud, and the crane that stands on one slim leg 
in profound contemplation of nothing, — it is to 
this great, permeating highway of the country, 
old Father Nile, that the distinguishing charac- 
teristics of Egyptian life and thought are to be 
attributed. 

But the Cairo of the present day puts forth 
almost as many claims to attention as the An- 
cient Egypt that has fascinated so many gener- 
ations of travelers from the days of Herodotus. 
Its busy streets, its cosmopolitan crowds, its 
brilliant skies, its antiquities side by side with 
the most modern of European fashions, its 
oriental characteristics absolutely interwoven 
with the simplest Western daily life, har- 
monize as completely as the highly contrasted 
costumes of Arab gorgeousness and London 
severity blend and mingle in the never-ending 
stream of passers-by. All day the brilliant pa- 
geant keeps up the panorama, and as the after- 
noon sun descends in the west, and the shadows 



EGYPT 277 

lengthen, we seek the far-famed citadel heights, 
and from the courtyard of the mosque of Me- 
hemet x41i, look over the teeming city to the serene 
horizon far beyond. Let another's words do the 
scene better justice than my own. " As the sun 
sets behind the pyramids and bathes the myriad 
minarets in a flood of golden light ; as that won- 
derful afterglow, seen nowhere but in Egypt, 
rises over the horizon, and seems to shed its bene- 
diction on all the valley beneath to soothe the 
swiftly flowing waters of the Nile, and to lull to 
sleep the city to the sound of the muezzin's call, 
one seems to stand above it all in a dreamland, 
and to deem no legend too strange to be true." 

To most travelers, however, the first attrac- 
tion draws towards the pyramids. The method 
of getting there rests with the traveler himself. 
Stout little donkeys will transport you in old- 
time fashion to the music of the donkey-boy's 
objurgations to the unheeding animal, as they 
did your fathers, or a European landau will 
take you, or even, ye gods ! an English tally- 
ho. The great pyramid cares not for your 
method of approach, the Sphinx moves not an 
eyelid, however gorgeous the trappings or digni- 
fied the official. The pyramid of Cheops has 
resigned its long-enjoyed supremacy as the loft- 
iest building in the world, but in no other 
direction does it lessen its unique charm. A 
statement of its dimensions gives an accurate 



278 EGYPT 

idea of its external appearance, of course, but of 
the interior no description is adequate. Of the 
intricacy, the darkness, the impending gloom, 
the mystery, the absolute terror of those stifling 
galleries, and ascending and descending passages 
and solemn chambers where only the dead have 
lain, where the breath fails, and the knees 
tremble, and the heart stands still — no one who 
has not seen them, felt them, crept through 
them, and suffered from them can form an ade- 
quate idea. Enceladus under Mount ^tna may 
have felt as I did with the consciousness of 
that mighty mass of stone above my head, 
crushing me to slow but certain suffocation. 
The nerves and the imagination conquer the 
reason, and the empty sarcophagus seemed to 
reproach me with having stolen the king's body, 
until a sense of guilt assailed me, and suffocat- 
ing and shuddering I yielded to the hallucination. 
The sudden flash of the magnesium wire, as it 
illuminated the swarthy and eager faces of the 
Arab guides, added to the weird features of the 
scene, and, although I was prosaically aware that 
the eagerness meant only a demand for '' bak- 
sheesh," in a moment like that it was easily 
translatable into a murderous intent. 

It is not well to be too precise in giving a 
date for any Egyptian event, but we may assume 
that Cheops built the great pyramid more than 
five thousand years ago, and made of its central 



EGYPT 279 

cliamber not only an appropriate resting-place 
for his august mummy, but the finest specimen 
of careful masonry in the world. The king's 
chamber is forty-six feet long, twenty-seven feet 
broad, and eleven feet high, and consists of 
enormous blocks of polished granite worked 
down and laid together with the greatest exact- 
ness. Every joint is as perfect as when it was 
first fitted to its neighbor. Some distance be- 
neath is the queen's chamber much smaller, but 
equal in solemn suggestion. Tradition says 
that three hundred and sixty thousand men and 
twenty years of time were needed to build this 
stupendous monument, and after emerging from 
its depths and beholding the height one has to 
climb upon the outside (looking all the loftier 
for the dark plunge beneath), one finds the story 
easy of belief. 

The only entrance into the pyramid is from the 
thirteenth stage of the ascent, or about forty-five 
feet from the ground. The stages or steps are 
from two to six feet in height, and are stripped 
of the limestone covering with which the archi- 
tect concealed the coarse granite, of which the 
massive structure is composed. They now form 
a giant staircase by which we climb to the sum- 
mit. Many of these stones are thirty feet long, 
and the labor of placing them in the upper rows 
must have been enormous. If you will consent 
to be pulled up by three native guides, you can 



280 EGYPT 

see for yourself how grandly the old Egyptians 
expressed their ideas of solidity and strength 
and honest workmanship, and what good right 
they had to believe that they were building for 
eternity. For even now, spite of the silent war- 
fare of the centuries, spite of the more furious 
ravages of man, spite of the rude tearing away 
of its protecting covering to build the puny 
palaces of the present, " that house shall stand, 
for it is builded upon a rock," and its massive 
stones are welded together with the treasure of 
kingdoms and the blood of nations. The me- 
•chanical ingenuity displayed, the certainty that 
such work could not have been accomplished 
without an advanced knowledge of mathematical 
principles and practical engineering, is proof of 
the long-established civilization of Egypt. In- 
deed, no matter how far back the present means 
of research lead, — and long backward strides 
have been made in these latter days, ■ — we find 
always the arts of civilized life and the cer- 
tainty of a developed language. The pyramid 
of Chephren retains a portion of the creamy 
limestone covering that once covered them all ; 
and we can imagine how these grand peaks must 
have looked when their shining sides caught the 
bright rays of the setting sun. But all the world 
knows a pyramid, so we turn from them to the 
Sphinx, which at a little distance gazes over the 
desolate landscape with the same calm steadfast- 



EGYPT 281 

ness as when she saw unmoved the placing of 
those mighty stones on one another, as pyramid 
after pyramid rose up before her. If there is a 
time in one's life, — if there is a spot on the 
earth when and where to feel what a small mat- 
ter a few centuries can seem, — it is when one 
looks up at this colossal face, with its impenetra- 
ble expression as of one accustomed to nothing 
less than an eternity. Of her own age, — for the 
Sphinx is always a lady in spite of the beard she 
once wore, — we know something by aid of an 
inscription on a tablet discovered by M. Mariette. 
This tablet states that Cheops wishes it to be 
generally known that he " has cleaned out the 
temple of Isis, ruler of the pyramid, which is 
situated at the spot where is the Sphinx ; " and 
we may conclude that she was then so old a 
resident as to have become convenient as a land- 
mark. Be that as it may, one thing is certain, 
that, although her nose is broken and her com- 
plexion a little weather-beaten, she possesses a 
strange beauty and an indescribable charm. She 
is still, as the old poet sang of her, " Like Vul- 
can powerful and like Pallas wise." With a 
head thirty feet high and fourteen feet across 
the brow, she may well have had room for the 
countless thoughts that have been stored up in 
her mighty brain during all these days and nights 
under the beautiful sky of her own Egypt. It 
was a brilliant freak of fancy in an artist, one 



282 EGYPT 

for which the world owes him a debt of grati- 
tude, to carve this majestic creature in the living 
rock and clothe her with the mystic attributes 
of sovereignty, and furnish her with limbs so 
powerful that her outstretched paws could en- 
fold a temple within their protecting sweep. It 
has been found by recent excavations that an 
idea even grander than the Sphinx alone was 
carried out by the audacious architect ; and she 
stood in the centre of a vast amphitheatre or 
rocky excavation, the upper edge of which was 
on the level of her chin. The sands have re- 
peatedly covered it from sight, and it has been 
more or less uncovered from time to time. The 
full height of the head from the true level is 
one hundred feet. 

While the pyramids and the Sphinx are the 
grandest monuments of the plain of Ghizeh, it 
also presents some admirable specimens of tomb 
architecture. The tomb of Ti ranks with the 
finest, and dates to the Old Empire, i. e, between 
2700 and 2200 b. c. The Mastabah or chapel 
on the surface was long ago destroyed, and the 
present entrance is obstructed by drifts of sand. 
The interior is in excellent condition and deeply 
interesting. It has been preserved by the fine 
dry sand which has filtered into all the chambers 
and concealed them so long, and they have suf- 
fered more from the wet squeeze-paper of modern 
tourists than from the action of centuries pre- 



EGYPT 283 

vious. The doorway now used is at the foot of 
an inclined plane of yielding sand, which often 
forces the traveler to an unexpectedly rapid rush, 
forward, for this sand is always accumulating 
and varying. It is kept within bounds by the 
guardians, and is, indeed, so beautiful a golden 
dust in the shade, and so like powdered diamonds 
in the sun, that it is worth while to sink ankle- 
deep in its glittering beauty, and watch it rip- 
pling away from your steps in small cascades of 
light. The innumerable wall-pictures within, 
whether, as some have thought, they depict the 
life the owner really lived, or, as later authorities 
hold, are the symbols of the experiences through 
which he was to pass after death, are admirable 
representations of ancient Egyptian manners 
and customs. The architectural and painted 
signification of tombs in this land of symbols 
deserves long and careful study. History is in- 
debted to it for some of its most important and 
interesting records. 

" But if the tombs of kings were magnificent, 
and those of lesser men were full of valuable in- 
formation, what shall be said of the mausoleum 
of the god Apis — the subterranean burial-place 
of many generations of sacred bulls ? " Living, 
the sacred bull was worshiped in a magnificent 
temple at Memphis, and lodged in a palace ad- 
joining ; dead, he was buried in excavated vaults 
at Sakharah, and worshiped in a temple built 



284 EGYPT 

over them, the Serapeum." Some idea of the 
great extent of the burial galleries may be 
gathered from the fact that those of the third 
division, which are open to visitors, cover an 
e:ntent of eleven hundred and fifty feet, and the 
great gallery is six hundred feet long. The 
splendor of the original construction was shown 
by the excavations of M. Mariette, in 1861. He 
uncovered one hundred and forty-one complete 
sphinxes and the fragments of many more, all of 
which adorned the main avenue, at the end of 
which stood one of the pro-pylons of the temple, 
with two lions crouching before it. The labor 
of excavation was enormous, some of the ruins 
being buried under seventy feet of compacted 
sand. The usual drawback to Egyptian exca- 
vation occurs here, for the jealous sands soon 
reengulf their treasures. Of the dark cells be- 
neath, however, there remain open to examina- 
tion many interesting monuments. Twenty-four 
huge sarcophagi are still in place, each weighing 
about sixty-five tons, and each suggesting the 
historic question, '' How the devil did it get in ? " 
Each one is thirteen feet long, seven and a half 
wide, and eleven feet high. Most, if not all, are 
hewn from a solid block of close-grained stone, 
and they actually appear to be wider than the 
galleries through which they must have been 
brought, though this may be an optical illusion. 
Near by are the massive stones that served as 



EGYPT 285 

covers, each a single slab of great thickness, 
which no doubt appeared to the priests a suffi- 
cient safeguard against man as against time. 
The first division contained the bulls from the 
eighteenth dynasty to the twenty -first ; the second 
to the twenty-fifth ; the third from the reign of 
Psammeticus First of the twenty-sixth dynasty 
to 60 B. C. 

The obelisks played an important part in 
temple architecture, but are perhaps of still 
greater antiquity. It has been the fate of sev- 
eral of these products of Egyptian art to wander 
into other lands, but they never seem at home 
there. 

Of the temples of Egypt, it would be useless 
to attempt a description in less than a volume. 
Scattered up and down the great valley, crown- 
ing the river banks, or nestling in the shadow of 
the mighty hills, — their huge fragments jutting 
from the mounds of sand, and marking the site 
of some once populous city, — these ruined 
shrines are eloquent with memories of ancient 
days. The temple was intended to be an epitome 
of the world, as it was regarded by the Egyptian 
philosopher, who believed it to be a flat plain, 
much longer than it was wide. It was upheld 
by immense pillars, and the sky was some sort 
of a permanent ceiling. The floor of the temple 
represented the ground, the different divisions 
were decorated appropriately, as the wainscot, 



286 EGYPT 

dado, etc., and were adorned with pictured vege- 
tation ; the base of the pillars bore painted leaves 
and branches, and the long stems of lotus and 
papyrus, with animals sporting among them. In 
the representations of a watered country, the fish 
swam and the wavelets rippled. The ceilings 
were painted blue and sprinkled with stars; 
the huge vultures of Nek-heb and Uati, god- 
desses of the north and of the south, crowned 
with emblems, soared above the naves of the 
hypostyle halls, and on the under side of the 
lintels of the great doors, seemed to hover over 
the head of the king, as he passed through on his 
way to the inner sanctuary. The firmament 
opened above to devout contemplation. Some- 
times the ceilings were decorated with the zodiac ; 
sometimes only the stars glistened on the azure 
field. A celestial ocean was navigated by the 
sun and moon moving among constellations and 
planets and the genii of the months and days. 
The decorations of the temples have furnished 
volumes of material for the archaeologist ; the 
ceremonies of worship and the residence of the 
priests within the sacred inclosure have made of 
them an inexhaustible treasure-house for poster- 
ity. The temples bore no resemblance to a Chris- 
tian church or to a Grecian temple. The whole 
worship consisted of processional ceremonies. 
The edifice was erected by a king in honor of a 
special deity, although dedicated to the Egyptian 



EGYPT 287 

Triad, but the king was the medium through 
which alone the nation offered homage. Even 
the priests had narrow limits in their office. 
The king alone, as Son of the Sun, could enter 
into the inner sanctuary, to contemplate the 
sacred symbols, and utter the prayers of the 
people, and the king was the living incarnation 
of Osiris. 

The colossal character of Egyptian workman- 
ship is constantly in evidence. Lintels of door- 
ways are sometimes forty feet long, statues 
weigh eight hundred tons, roofing-stones are 
thirty feet long and weigh sixty tons, and so on. 
Another feature is the profuse decoration either 
in deep-cut hieroglyphics or in highly colored 
frescoes. To this taste we are indebted for 
much information, and when Egypt made her- 
self a vast picture-book, she supplied the nations 
who succeeded her with much knowledge that 
might otherwise never have been recorded. 

Every one of the many temples deserves 
separate mention, but they are already en- 
shrined in admirable volumes by competent au- 
thorities. I only venture to quote a paragraph 
which brings out the peculiar features of the 
symbols and the worship at a later day, when 
foreign influences are beginning to appear. 
The temple of Denderah was the abode of 
Hathor, the Greek equivalent for Aphrodite. 
''From the hieroglyphics that cover the walls 



288 EGYPT 

we can learn much of the religious rites of later 
days, imitated, no doubt, like the temples them- 
selves from those of an earlier age. There is 
the large portal, through which, clothed in his 
long robes, with sandaled feet and leaning on 
his staff, the king alone could pass ; but before 
even he could do so, and so penetrate into the 
temple itself, it was necessary that the gods 
should recognize him as king of Upper and 
Lower Egypt. Thoth and Horus must anoint 
him with the emblems of power; Ouate and 
Suan must crown him with the double crown ; 
Mout of Thebes and Toum of Heliopolis must 
conduct him into the sacred presence of the 
goddess Hathor herself. Here, within, sombre 
and silent, are the priests assembled, passing in 
solemn procession, ascending the terraces and 
descending them again, in order to encompass 
the encircling wall, according to prescribed 
rites, with the four boats holding, carefully con- 
cealed, the sacred emblems. Here is the court 
containing the offerings, and the limbs of the 
victims of the sacrifice. The king consecrates 
the offerings, and, followed by thirteen priests, 
carrying on high poles the emblems of the 
divinities, ascends the northern staircase, stops 
on the terrace of the twelve columns, and de- 
scends by the southern staircase. Below the 
temple are the secret hiding-places of the 
treasures of the gods, statues in gold, silver, 



EGYPT 289 

and lapis-lazuli only brought out on the rare 
occasions of the most solemn ceremonies." 

After accepting the enormous labor of the 
pyramids, and inspecting the monstrous slabs 
of the Apis Mausoleum, and measuring the 
great monoliths of the obelisks, and wondering 
over the massive fragments of the colossus of 
the Rameseum, and finally spending many hours 
in vain attempts to master the plan of the 
mighty temple of Karnak, we sit down and 
ask ourselves the meaning of this profuse ex- 
penditure of human strength, skill, and labor. 

Is it not the earlier and more tangible expres- 
sion of that instinct which in later times led to 
the almost equally interminable prayers and 
sacrifices and penances exacted as the price of 
a difficult salvation ? That an immutable belief 
in the efficacy of willing toil, and trust in its 
propitiatory power, prevailed is evident from 
the fact that an enormous block of stone, which 
had required the labor of two thousand boat- 
men to transport it to Sai's, was abandoned at 
the very entrance of the temple because the 
architect was heard to utter a sigh as if fatigued 
by the length of time employed and the labor 
undergone in getting it there. 

If, however, in contemplating the grand out- 
lines of the pyramids, the vast halls of the 
temples and the colossal features of the sphinx 
the conclusion is reached that size and its con- 



290 EGYPT 

sequent treatment were inevitable accompani- 
ments of Egyptian work, a glance at the sculp- 
ture that has come to light will soon convince 
one that the Egyptian was an adept in delicate 
manipulation, and knew how to conquer the 
most rebellious materials. "Nowhere, save in 
the Nile Valley, is it possible to follow the evo- 
lution of the sculptor's art through a series of 
several thousands of years." The history and 
religious importance of the portrait statues of 
Egypt cannot be dwelt upon here, but adds 
another chapter to the fascination of the litera- 
ture of this land. The magnificent collections 
at Ghezireh will arrest the attention and arouse 
the enthusiasm of the most careless visitor. 

Turning from the study of these great land- 
marks, we enter upon the wonderful voyage 
which unfolds the panorama of a thousand miles 
of the incomparable Nile Valley. I can almost 
hear again the ripple of the waves that made 
music in the soft air of morning, and see the 
stars that gleamed in the dark brow of night. 
As we read the pages written by ancient trav- 
elers over the same route we accepted the old 
traditions, and loved to think, with Plutarch, 
that Isis and Osiris were indeed the powers by 
whose semi-human beneficence all life was pre- 
served and protected. We feel with the Egyp- 
tian that " Osiris is the Nile, who accompanies 
Isis, which is the earth ; and Typhon is the sea, 



EGYPT 291 

into which the Nile falling is thereby destroyed 
and scattered, excepting only that part of it 
which the earth receives and drinks up, by 
means whereof she becomes prolific." 

Whether we glide over the quiet waters in 
dreamy enjoyment and watch the changing 
views on the river banks, or land at some stop- 
ping-place and encounter the turmoil of the 
jostling crowd and the strife of donkey boys, 
the experience is novel and interesting. Our 
steamer was a small one and the passengers of 
the better sort. The superior luxury of the large 
steamers is procured by giving up other advan- 
tages arising from the simpler processes in land- 
ing and from the greater ease with which the 
demand for donkeys is supplied. The passage 
up the river gave us new ideas of the variety 
and beauty of the scenery and especially of the 
grandeur of the overhanging cliifs. The Nile is, 
as we know, the longest river in the world with- 
out tributaries, and in its twenty-five hundred 
miles of unimpeded flow, passes through much 
picturesque country. One of its bold bluffs is 
called Gebel-el-Tayr or Mountain of the Birds, 
with a Coptic convent on the summit. " All the 
birds of the country are said to assemble here 
annually, and, having selected one of their num- 
ber to remain here until the following year, they 
fly away into Africa, returning the next year to 
release their comrade and substitute another." 



292 EGYPT 

Many of the cliffs are perforated with caves, 
sometimes as tombs, sometimes as dwellings for 
the living. We explore the famous tombs of 
Beni-Hassan, which are remarkable for their 
architectural peculiarities. They are copies in 
a measure of wooden buildings, hewn in the 
rock and often entering far into it. 

We were fortunate in having a kindly moon 
to light us on our way, and scenes were each 
night painted in quite other colors than those 
used by the sun. Many of the days between 
Cairo and Assouan were veiled in soft gray 
clouds, but when the smiling regent of the 
heavens appeared these clouds were rent apart 
or heaped themselves together like a crowd 
awaiting the approach of royalty. As the moon 
rose higher in the sky and the night hours wore 
on these clouds often assumed strange forms, 
spreading out like giant broadwinged birds, or 
like gleaming peaks of snow-crowned hills, or 
faint outlines of a distant city, — while dark 
shadows bathed the shores and the rippling of 
the waves added charm to the trip to dream- 
land. No other scenes can ever obscure the 
memory of that delightful voyage when we were 
completely isolated from the world we had left 
behind, and in which the prosaic present gives 
place to the solemn dignity of an immeasurable 
past. It was all like reading a delightful book 
filled with exquisite illustrations of a story 



EGYPT 293 

which was our own daily life. The scenes we 
were beholding recalled the history of long-past 
ages, and the vivid beauty of our surroundings 
invested the driest chronological records with 
the charm of immortal human interest, and the 
halo of undying sentiment. Tombs, pyramids, 
and temples are pages in the veritable book of 
history, and they are so rich in sculptured and 
painted records that they seem to have been 
thus arranged for the very purpose of stimulat- 
ing and satisfying the curiosity of later ages. 
Take, for example, Belzoni's tomb, with galleries 
extending more than three hundred feet into the 
rock, its descending stairs leading deeper and 
deeper ; its walls covered with hieroglyphic in- 
scriptions; its ceilings illustrative of Egyptian 
theology ; its many chambers, each dedicated to 
some mysterious purpose of final concealment of 
the owner's body. People at a distance have 
read of the wonderful discovery of the mummies 
of the priests of Ammon in 1881, but when we 
cross the wide sun-heated desert sand, and enter 
upon the utter desolation of the Valley of the 
Kings, a new sense of the terrible importance 
attached to the preservation of the human form 
which had enshrined a human soul, comes with 
bewildering power over the imagination. One 
feels almost regretful for the rough audacity 
with which this sacred seclusion was invaded, 
and the success with which such untiring and 



294 EGYPT 

reverential guardianship has been broken down. 
We read Maspero's account of the labor and 
ingenuity required to bring these sixty helpless 
creatures to the surface, with mingled satisfac- 
tion and sorrow — they appeal to the most 
tender and sublime instincts, their dignity has 
" suffered loss," and even their present magnifi- 
cent abode hardly makes amends for their de- 
stroyed inaccessibility. 

We were a month at Luxor, — how tell of the 
glorious ruins of Karnak as they stand silent, 
solemn, and vast beneath the noonday sun, or 
glisten mysteriously in the silver moonlight, 
when the mighty columns of the great hall 
seem indeed to support the sky, and the dark 
shadows to conceal the approach of one of those 
countless processions with whose tread the now 
silent spaces once echoed? And what of the 
magnificent plain of Thebes and the sympathetic 
statues of Memnon, which still sit listening for 
the coming of the great Ammon-Ra, while the 
grain of a thousand harvests ripens at their feet 
and the recurring Nile bathes them annually 
with the fresh waters of far-off streams ? The 
elegant proportions of the Rameseum near by 
welcome the traveler to its shady recesses, and 
to the study of its pictured walls ; perhaps also 
to pity the prostrate kingly statue which the. 
malice of war, rather than the slow waste of 
time, has overthrown. Medinet-Abou and Dahr- 



EGYPT 295 

el-Bahri assert their claims, and whisper their 
eloquent secrets to a reverent ear, and every 
day serves to rivet more closely the chains 
which bind the heart to this enchanting and 
pathetic land. 

A week at Assouan opens a new chapter in 
this rich volume : — Philae and Elephanta ; the 
gentle river and the fertile fields ; the waving 
palms and shining waves. The tiny steamer 
that conveys our little group to the second cata- 
ract gives us visions of surpassing beauty. This 
is a voyage the gods themselves may have de- 
sired to take, when Isis and Osiris reigned over 
Egypt, and Rameses the Great strode over the 
necks of conquered tribes. The air was keen 
and cold at times, but a few wrappings made us 
perfectly comfortable, for there was no malice in 
the air. We floated past graceful palm-groves ; 
we watched the groups of camels, donkeys, and 
men ; the sakiyahs creaked, and the buckets 
of the shadoofs poured their fertilizing floods ; 
while many white-winged feluccas dotted the 
river. We go near enough to shore to recognize 
the supercilious sniffing of the camels, the deeply 
contemplative expression of the donkeys and the 
astonishingly slim legs of the Arabs. At times 
we land, and drink deep draughts of history in 
the study of a temple, a tomb, or a village over- 
flowing with the howling descendants of the 
pyramid builders. Mammon is now the god of 



296 EGYPT 

tlieir worship ; Baksheesh is his prophet, and 
their own name is Legion. Silence returns 
when we are once more on the river, and the 
^unset hour draws near, and heaven opens its 
gates to let the inner glory flash across the oft 
ungrateful earth. The sunsets are not like ours 
robed in crimson and violet, and '' trailing clouds 
of glory from afar ; " — here the sun descends 
with stately step and slow, through an unclouded 
sky, until the western hills hide him from sight, 
or the romote horizon serves as his journey's 
end. As his last beams disappear the heavens 
are suffused with an amber glow, the earth is 
bathed in golden haze, and the placid river 
reflects the tawny splendor, till we almost trem- 
ble at the mighty blending of earth and heaven. 
We poor mortals are transfigured in the uni- 
versal radiance; a reverent hush is in the air, 
and the glory dreamed of by inspired poets, but 
unpainted of mortal pencil, dawns upon our 
dazzled eyes. Evening after evening this vision 
rose before us and all on board watched for its 
coming, and paid homage to its transcendent 
charm. It bore no resemblance to our familiar 
pageant ; but it lasted more than an hour, and 
the brilliancy slowly faded away to paler gold 
and cooler tints ; the hills became dim in lilac 
outlines, and the Nile recovered the blue-gray of 
its normal coloring. 

Each of the eight days spent on this portion 



EGYPT 297 

of the river deserves a separate description, 
but one crowning point absolutely demands an 
attempt at portraiture. The rock temple o£ 
Ipsamboul stands almost alone in stately gran- 
deur, and in the perfection with which the origi- 
nal idea was carried out. The grandeur, the 
dignity, the serene solemnity of this magnificent 
monument in far-oif Nubia, is finely commemo- 
rative of the religious energy and exhaustless 
patience of this people. We anchored just be- 
neath the lofty cliff into whose bosom the great 
temple has cleft its way, and landed eagerly to 
climb the steep ascent which now leads to the 
portal. The ancient approach was over a broad 
platform hewn from the rock, but now encum- 
bered with sand and debris. The pilgrims who 
yearly visit the deserted shrine are very differ- 
ent from those who once brought offerings to 
revered deities ; but it would seem impossible 
that any should fail to offer some tribute of 
respect to this splendid example of a great 
nation's expression of its religious faith. 

Nothing could be more impressive than the 
fagade of this temple. Four colossal statues 
sixty feet in height and massive in proportion 
sit in silent guardianship, and gaze with ab- 
sorbed intentness towards the river, as if expect- 
ant of the arrival of priests and people in many 
ships. They are, like the temple itself, hewn 
from the living rock, and attest the genius and 



298 EGYPT 

the skill of those who thus discovered the hid- 
den possibilities of this mountain-side, and, as it 
were, released from their rocky prison these ma- 
jestic representations of the great king, which 
their prophetic eyes beheld ere chisel touched 
the stone or hammer struck its blow. The im- 
mense front of the temple, a full hundred feet 
in height, must have been first outlined; the 
rock before it then cleared away for a platform 
of approach ninety feet broad, and last of all 
the magnificent statues sculptured in the face 
of the rock, and the cornices chiseled, the high 
portal opened, and the statue of the Sun-god, 
the great Ammon-Ra, placed above. The en- 
trance hall is supported by eight statues of 
Rameses the Great, seventeen feet high, and a 
dignified group they are. Halls and galleries 
succeed each other, till a depth of two hundred 
feet is reached. The divisions diminish in 
breadth until the final sanctuary-chamber dwin- 
dles to a small cell. Eight rooms open upon 
the great hall, irregularly excavated, probably 
used for the minor offices, and connected to- 
gether by corridors, which must have always 
depended upon artificial light. The inner 
shrine is very impressive in spite of its small 
size; perhaps an added awe was obtained by 
the complete privacy and protection thus af- 
forded the king when left alone in the presence 
of the gods. At the upper end of this apart- 



EGYPT 299 

ment, and marking the limit of the excavation, 
there is a bench cut in the rock, and on this 
bench four statues, hewn in the same way, sit in 
everlasting silence and mystical serenity. They 
are Ammon-Ra, Horus, Rameses, and Phtah, 
the shaper and framer of the material universe. 
They await the offerings which have ceased to 
come, and the offering table is overturned as if 
in derision. The only light that enters comes 
through the main entrance door two hundred 
feet away, but in direct line with it. 

Our first visit was in the afternoon, and after 
long study of the interior, we, with great labor, 
climbed the sand-swept pathway to the top of 
the high cliff which contains the temple. It is 
seven or eight hundred feet high, and the sun- 
set view from the summit is extensive and beau- 
tiful. The immeasurable quantity of sand which 
drifts continually over the side of the cliff makes 
constant resistance to the excavator, and even to 
the lighter demand of the tourist. But the re- 
ward awaits the toiler, and the rapidity of the 
descent makes up for the slow climbing. 

We watched the twilight shades later on from 
the deck of the vessel as they enfolded temple 
and hill in concealing drapery. Our crowning 
enjoyment was to come later still. About three 
o'clock in the morning a summons echoed through 
the steamer, which brought us all on deck. As 
fitting preparation for the approaching scene 



300 EGYPT 

we found the Southern Cross resplendent in the 
heavens, the waning moon more paUid in the 
west, and a solemn hush pervading the air as we 
uwaited the coming of the dawn. The reflection 
of the stars in the smooth mirror of the river 
was more pronounced than I have ever seen it 
anywhere else, and seemed to emphasize the har- 
mony of earth and sky. We clambered up the 
rough ascent to the temple door, and with one 
companion I penetrated, with many stumbles in 
the darkness, to the distant shrine. We took 
our seats on the rough rock, in the dread pre- 
sence of the unseen deities, to await with them 
the morning smile of the Sun-god. It came at 
last, this welcome beam ; the sitting gods were 
revealed to our sight, and seemed to glow with a 
responsive inward light. We thrilled with mag- 
netic sympathy and bowed our heads in mute, 
religious awe. The sun passed on upon his daily 
task, the rest of the party entered, the spell was 
broken, we were again in the present, but the 
memory of that dawning light will always retain 
its power. 

The smaller temple near Ipsamboul, also ex- 
cavated in the cliff, was dedicated (like a chapel 
in a cathedral) to Hathor, " the mother of Ra," 
whose emblem is the sacred cow. " Hathor 
— or more correctly Hat-hor, i. e., the abode of 
Horus — is not merely the Aphrodite of ancient 
Egypt, she is the pupil of the eye of the sun ; 



EGYPT 301 

she is the goddess of that beneficent planet 
whose rising heralds the waters of the inunda- 
tion ; she represents the eternal youth of nature ; 
and is the direct personification of the beautiful. 
She is also goddess of truth. " 1 offer the 
truth to thee, O Goddess of Denderah ! " says 
the king in one of the inscriptions in the sanctu- 
ary of the Sistrum ; " for truth is thy work and 
thou thyself art truth." 

The temples of Egypt are intrinsically alike 
in spite of many superficial differences. The 
sanctuary is essential, and is sufficient to make 
a temple ; it might be only a low small obscure 
rectangular chamber accessible only to Pharaoh 
and the priests. It contained neither statue nor 
emblem, but only the sacred boat or a taberna- 
cle of painted wood on a pedestal. A niche in 
the wall formed of a single block of stone re- 
ceived on certain days the statue of the local 
god or the living animal sacred to him. From 
this simple chamber grew all the complex archi- 
tecture of the grandest temples and all the in- 
numerable buildings ultimately comprised in 
the divine house. 

But the temples and the tombs, grand as they 
are, are not all of Egypt, and the Nile Valley 
has a thousand other fascinations. The lovely 
island of Philae, the cataracts and groves, the 
donkey rides in the desert, the excursions by 
land and by water, each and all have something 



302 EGYPT 

exquisite and possess a charm unlike one's ex- 
perience in other places. The second cataract, 
far up in Nubia, is on the verge of the black 
country, where the " abomination of desolation " 
has an abode. There is in it such a frank 
admission of its complete freedom from adorn- 
ment by nature or by art, such unquestioning 
acceptance of its own unloveliness, that, taken 
as contrast to the beauty to which our eyes have 
grown accustomed, it becomes oddly and seri- 
ously interesting. It is reached by railway 
from the head of navigation, the military post 
of Wady-Halfah. The road passes over a sandy 
plain, among hundreds of graves marked by 
rough stones or a heap of pebbles which the 
shifting sands soon conceal, or worse still, leave 
bare the bodies of the dead for vultures to 
swoop down upon or for jackals and dogs to 
fight over. This excursion ends the journey of 
the ordinary traveler on the Nile, and the re- 
turn down the river presents for examination 
the monuments omitted on the upward voyage. 

Abandoning the useless attempt to describe 
more fully the scenes of the present or the 
reminiscences of the past, and remembering that 
no matter how much may be said, the untold 
will always be grander and more beautiful than 
that which is put into words, I content myself 
with an attempt to give an idea of the vast trea- 
sures contained in the museum in the Ghizeh 



EGYPT 303 

Palace, a few miles from Cairo. It may be re- 
garded as the full exposition of the records of 
Egypt and the confirmation of all that has been 
asserted of her ancient grandeur and advanced 
civilization. There are ninety-one rooms filled 
with the excavations of Mariette Bey and his 
successors. From the earliest dynasties, which 
fill thirteen rooms, and the collections of the so- 
called New Empire which occupy seventeen 
rooms, we enter various courtyards filled with 
statues and sarcophagi and sphinxes. Here the 
history and the art of Egypt may be studied in 
a congenial atmosphere. The eloquence of that 
vast array of statues ; of stelae ; of manuscripts ; 
the long ranges of animal-headed deities ; the 
tender grace of the statuettes ; the wonderful 
realism of those wooden men and women, and 
the subtle but evident connection which binds 
them all together in harmony of sequence as 
parts of one great national record — fill heart 
and mind with the desire to learn more and 
more of the history of this land. 

Of the endless collection at Ghizeh there are 
some specimens which appeal strongly to the 
imagination. Look at the famous Nubian 
couple immortalized in stone, who have been 
sitting in affectionate proximity ever since the 
reign of Seneferoo, last king of the third dy- 
nasty, the predecessor of Cheops. Ra-ho-ta and 
the princess Nefer-t are " carved in limestone 



304 EGYPT 

and colored to the life ; they must have sat to 
one of the ablest artists in portraiture who ever 
lived." Their eyes are inserted in the stone 
sockets, and though of quartz and crystal, seem 
" to return one's gaze with an answering intelli- 
gence almost appalling." 

The summit of archaic skill is attained in the 
statue of Chephren, builder of the second pyra- 
mid. It was hewn from a single block of the 
finest and hardest diorite, and was found in the 
ancient temple of the Sphinx. The king is in a 
sitting posture ; behind his head is a hawk with 
widespread wings in sign of divine protection ; 
the left hand lies open upon his thigh, the right 
holds a papyrus roll. The arms of his chair or 
throne are carved lions' heads, and the lotus and 
papyrus plants, symbols of Upper and Lower 
Egypt, cluster at the sides. The beauty and 
dignity and exquisite finish are all the more 
wonderful when we examine closely the adaman- 
tine stone which stubbornly resists the stroke of 
the sculptor. 

In contrast to this grand embodiment of the 
kingly spirit, stands the wooden statue known 
as Sheik-el-Beled or Ra-em'-Ka, the alertness of 
whose walking attitude suggests that his prome- 
nade across the ages is still in progress. Aside 
from the skill of the carver in creating so de- 
lightful an individual from a block of wood, one 
can hardly fail to fancy that in giving such 



EGYPT 305 

spirit to the portrait the artist endowed this 
usually perishable material with a vitality which 
enables it to survive the passing centuries. 

Some of the finest sculpture of Egypt was 
long ago transferred to European museums, but 
enough has been retained to permit complete 
study of its development and appreciation of its 
excellence. One especial fragment challenges 
the utmost admiration. It is the head of Me- 
nephthah, supposed to be the Pharaoh of the 
Exodus. It is of fine black basalt, is heavily 
burdened by the huge double crown of sover- 
eignty, and is only a head whose body has suf- 
fered loss, but even the Apollo Belvedere might 
envy the calm serenity of that royal face. 

There are so many of the larger objects of in- 
terest, so many colossi, mummy-cases, stelae, and 
sarcophagi, and the catalogue raisonne gives so 
much information concerning them, that there 
is risk of overlooking the smaller objects which 
reward the closest scrutiny. The statuettes of 
animals are simply marvelous : a cow in red jas- 
per, a dog in agate, a hippopotamus in lapis-lazuli, 
an endless variety of monkeys, fish, and frogs. 
The scarabseus figures in all materials ; one in 
green porphyry is of priceless value. Delicate 
sculpture adorns the handles of mirrors, one of 
which represents a woman swimming ; perfume- 
boxes, toilet articles, and surgical instruments 
abound ; needles, scissors, and knives show do- 



/ 



306 EGYPT 

mestic habits. The jewels of Queen Aah-ho-tep 
are accompanied by an unusually fine example 
of the sacred bark of gold, with wheels of bronze 
and tiny oarsmen of silver. 

There is a still deeper charm in the exquisite 
statuettes of Isis, Osiris, and Horus under their 
different forms, and also in the votive offerings 
found in the tombs. One represents Isis in the 
form of a wonderfully idealized cow ; against 
her breast and beneath her protecting chin 
there stands a tiny Psammetichus, the king, be- 
loved of gods and men, wearing an equally ideal- 
ized apron covered with delicate hieroglyphics, 
probably his certificate of good behavior. The 
Christian Madonna has no more divine gentle- 
ness in her eyes, no fonder attitude of protecting 
tenderness. With this, and forming a single 
group, stands Osiris eternally unmoved, and 
safe from the emotions which still agitate the 
mother-heart of Isis, and Horus, the junior mem- 
ber of the Egyptian Triad, in immortal youth 
and grace. Of the votive offerings the most in- 
teresting is a small sarcophagus of basalt. It is 
covered on the side with hieroglyphics, and 
bears a mummy portrait on the lid. The face 
of the mummy is serene with the peace of death, 
its arms are folded as in welcome rest, and by its 
side, watching over it with eternal vigilance and 
seeming to gaze into an eternal future, sits a 
little figure which is at once hawk and human 



EGYPT 307 

form. This is the soul which must protect the 
body till both are called to the judgment-seat 
of Osiris. Of this power to idealize animal 
forms the Egyptians were supreme masters ; 
the grandest examples are the lions of Gebel- 
Barkal, now in the British Museum, pronounced 
by competent critics to be the finest in the 
world ; the minor specimens are almost as 
admirable. 

In the midst of the solemn and far-reaching 
thoughts which crowded my mind as I wandered 
through the interminable attractions of this re- 
markable collection, my eyes caught sight of a 
cabinet filled with the toys of children, who had 
played with them before the pyramids had risen 
on the plain, and with the perfume-boxes and 
scissors of the mothers who rocked them to sleep 
as the sun, going down in the west, looked for 
the first time upon the shadow cast by the fin- 
ished profile of the sphinx. Mrs. Browning has 
said that all the philanthropy of women may 
be resolved into pity for one particularly well- 
known red-headed boy, so, to me, there was more 
immediate pathos in a little shabby ball dropped 
from the tired hand of some poor little boy- 
mummy, who perhaps left his mother desolate 
six thousand years ago, than in the jewels of 
Queen Aah-ho-tep or the colossal Chephren, as 
he sits again in daylight after his nap of sixty 
centuries. 



308 EGYPT 

But it Is the discovery of the royal mummies 
only a few years ago that supplies the climax of 
interest to the great museum. The account of 
the difficulties attending their disinterment has 
been graphically narrated by Maspero, who con- 
ducted the laborious process, and secured this 
priceless harvest. There are seventy-five sar- 
cophagi (with about three hundred cases, cover- 
ings, and boxes belonging to them), which were 
selected from about twice that number found 
at Bab-el-Molook. They now occupy the gor- 
geous rooms w^here Ismail Pasha once dwelt. 
A sarcophagus comprised usually four or five 
parts, a single or double coffin with covers, a 
flat " cartonnage," or papier macM wrapping 
placed immediately over the mummy, and under 
the covering of the inside coffin. All sorts of 
articles were found in the chambers that shel- 
tered these fugitive mummies in their hiding- 
place ; palm-leaf fans, foot-gear in leather of 
different colors ; straw sandals, canes with ivory 
heads, whips with wooden handles, and other 
trifles. In one sarcophagus, which contained the 
remains of a priestess of Ammon, there were 
two little wooden statuettes of Isis and Nepthys, 
who are ever weeping for Osiris. The linen 
wrappings were of the finest quality, bordered 
with blue trimmings. Flowers were in the cof- 
fin, and had retained a remarkably fresh appear- 
ance, but dropped to dust when exposed to the 
outside air. 



EGYPT 309 

Some of the outer cases are so richly adorned 
that they have been much injured by thieves for 
the sake of the gold used on them ; some are 
painted on a brilliantly yellow groundwork, and 
some on a sort of white enamel. The texts and 
inscriptions upon them are very interesting. At 
times the " cartonnage " is elaborately carved in 
open work ; some of the ornamentation is in 
high relief, and the whole effect is heightened 
by the increased size of each added coffin or 
case, which sometimes reaches colossal propor- 
tions. Two of the largest contained a king and 
a queen, who obtained divine honors of some 
unusual sort. The history of each mummy 
is known, as each coffin is inscribed with a bi- 
ography of its occupant. Some of the bodies 
are wrapped in orange-colored linen; one is 
enveloped from head to foot in garlands of flow- 
ers. A wasp was found among them. It must 
have flown in before the closing of the coffin, 
and made itself famous as the only one ever to 
be mummified. In the burial-chamber, there 
was also the funeral pavilion of Queen Isomk- 
heb, folded and laid in a corner as if in haste. 
One of the coffins is almost entirely covered 
with heavy gold-leaf, and its ornamentation is 
heightened by fragments of precious stones and 
enamel. 

The original occupants of these gorgeous 
coffins arouse an undying interest, and reveal 



310 EGYPT 

invaluable secrets of the remote past. The 
bodies of Seti I., of Thothmes III., and above 
all, that of Rameses the Great, are here in actual 
^nd undisputed sovereignty and verity. We 
bow our heads in willing homage to this king 
among kings, and hero among heroes. He lies 
in a magnificent coffin, which is made in the 
image of Osiris, the eyes and other features 
tinted with black enamel, the hands still holding 
the sceptre. Upon the breast is painted the 
cartouche of Rameses. Maspero uncovered the 
mummy, and found not only indisputable evi- 
dence of the authenticity of the great monarch's 
corpse, but an account of an accident which 
happened to the first coffin, of a much earlier 
date than the present one, and of the transfer of 
the body to the case it now occupies, which had 
greatly perplexed Maspero. Rameses is de- 
clared to have been the handsomest man that 
ever lived — a man of brilliant intellect, a states- 
man, a warrior, and — a beauty. These claims 
are all granted in the presence of this dark- 
brown, fleshless, gaunt, but most majestic 
mummy, whose splendid height and haughty 
bearing indicate clearly his royal supremacy. 

Thus even in the gay and beautiful Cairo of 
the present or while enjoying the freshness of 
the desert, and the palms of Luxor, and the fas- 
cination of the Egypt of to-day, we linger longest 
among the relics of its ancient glory ; we reclothe 



EGYPT 311 

the long-silent kings with flesh and spirit, and 
re-live in them the glorious epochs of the past. 
We listen as the waves of the Nile repeat the 
story that they learned when the world was 
young ; we hear the echo of ancient music in the 
corridors of the temples and the sighs of the 
mourners as they sit in the seclusion of these 
funeral chapels. 

It is fitting that so grand a nation should have 
left so many monuments ; that its history should 
have been inscribed in such various records, and 
that each of its conquerors, though sweeping vio- 
lently over its early dynasties, should yet never 
really obliterate the characteristics of its original 
inhabitants. Their individuality, and even their 
physical traits, have never failed to assert them- 
selves, and are recognized in the twentieth cen- 
tury after Christ as intrinsically the same as 
they were sixty centuries before Christ's coming. 
Their history opens ever farther and farther be- 
hind us, and the exhaustless interest of the theme 
continues to lure the student to the hopeless at- 
tempt to portray the outlines of their grandeur. 



ElectrotyPed and Printed by H. O. Houghton <5r» Co. 
Cambridge i Mass.^ U.S.A. 



■kJ/^TT ri*t tr\rv<« 



NOV 20 1901 



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